NPR: The New Republic Stands By Its Baghdad Diarist

The New Republic Stands By Its Baghdad Diarist

The Army says he's a liar. The conservative magazine The Weekly Standard calls him reckless. But The New Republic is still supporting Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp.

In three articles in the magazine, Beauchamp detailed the petty cruelties of the U.S. Army in Baghdad. In one anecdote, he talks about a soldier playing with the skull of an Iraqi child. In another, he writes about making fun of a woman whose face was disfigured.

On today's All Things Considered, NPR's Media Correspondent David Folkenflik tries to sort out who's telling the truth and concludes the story is at an impasse. The New Republic claims to have verified almost all of the details in Beauchamp's writing, except for one. The story about mocking the injured woman happened in Kuwait, not Baghdad. Folkenflik writes:

Leaving aside how one mistakes a base in one country for a base in another, that would mean, if true, Beauchamp's agonizing self-analysis occurred BEFORE his time in combat areas, not during or after, which would seem to undermine the validity of the origins of his cruelty. TNR Editor Franklin Foer stands behind the veracity of the event for now, however, saying he spoke to the other soldier.

The Weekly Standard claims that Beauchamp admitted that the stories were lies. The New Republic denies it. And the man in the middle says nothing: Beauchamp has been stripped of his laptop and cell phone, and no one has heard his side of the story.

- Robert Smith

4:36 PM ET | 08- 8-2007 | permalink

Comments

I listened to the story as it aired sometime after 4 PM Central on Wednesday, and found it amazing that just as the reporter started commenting on the inconsistencies in Beauchamp's stories, the anchor amazingly said, thank you David I'm sorry but we're just out of time. Now, the piece that streams on the site seems to have been edited to NOT include the last part where the anchor cuts off the reporter, and that a new "close" has been added. I know what I heard, and I'm disturbed that the original pieced has been edited. Am I now not to trust NPR?

Sent by Matt Kaufman | 6:07 PM ET | 08-09-2007

I was just talking to David Folkenflik and he told me what happened. The interview was done live for the East coast feed of All Things Considered, but there was a screw-up with the clock in the studio. David thought he had longer to talk, but the host had to jump in so the program could end on time.

Folkenflik re-did the interview for the second feed of All Things Considered for the midwest. That one came out on time. It was this version that aired on the West coast and is archived on the web.

So no conspiracy here. Just the normal drama of live radio.

Sent by Robert Smith | 8:34 AM ET | 08-10-2007

So let me get this straight. The soldier in question blogged about other soldiers killing stray dogs, playing with skulls and himslef making fun of a disfigured person. No war crimes here. No torture or rapes or anything serious (well okay, killing dogs is cruel). And all these other people, editors or columnists or whatever, are taking up page space, time and energy arguing about the veracity of the blogging soldier? Why am I having such a hard time staying interested in this for more than, oh, a minute or two? Do people really have such screwed up priorities that they would waste all that on such a non-issue? Gee, we got some soldiers that aren't exactly nice people. Wait, stop the presses! War often makes people into beasts, taking all directly involved down to a primal level. So why is anyone particularly shocked by this? Thanks for giving me one more reason to sneer at the Weekly Standard's neocon a$$kissing (Bill Kristol, what a joke) and not caring all that much about TNR either.

Sent by John R. Otten | 1:42 PM ET | 08-10-2007

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