Foer: It Wasn't My Fault

h/t Hot Air headlines -- As reported by the New York Observer, these three paragraphs below just about sum up Franklin Foer's response to the Scott Beauchamp affair. Keep in mind, Elspeth Reeve, the wife he assigned as a fact checker for Beauchamp, is gone. Foer is never pushed as regards that ethical lapse and actually defends the stories. Looks like he found a friendly place to start rehabilitating himself. As if. Translation - it wasn't my fault.

Foer trusted Beauchamp and Reeve. What's unclear is why, when it comes to good judgment, or ethical journalism, anyone should ever again trust him.

Based on Mr. Foer's account, it does not appear that TNR's four-and-a-half-month investigation turned up any new inconsistencies in Mr. Beauchamp's stories.

Asked why TNR had not demanded this layer of evidence and corroboration before Mr. Beauchamp's pieces were published, Mr. Foer said, "There's a baseline level of trust you have in writers when you assign them pieces."

Mr. Foer said he had trusted Mr. Beauchamp—then 23 and without journalistic training—largely on the recommendation of Elspeth Reeve, who at the time had been working at TNR for six months as a reporter-researcher.

Comments

[pst314]

Mr. Riehl, you garbled that quote. It should have been "There's a baseline level of trust you have in writers when they submit stories that confirm all your worst prejudices about American soldiers."

[docweasel]

I dunno, the only point of even following up on these creeps is to tweak them for their hypocrisy and make sport of them. The entirety of the MSM has been proven, mostly by the new media, as such partisan hucksters and frauds who will do, say or print anything to promote a political agenda, that its not even a valid exercise to "police" them anymore. Its like complaining that Road Runner Cartoons don't follow the laws of physics or that reindeer can't really fly. No one really expects truth, integrity or ethics in our reportage class of criminals and liars.

[Fred Beloit]

Right, doc. In fact there was a link several days ago from I think PJM to a blogger who tried to make the case that, in so many words, all journalism should be propaganda. Brilliant no?