Franklin Foer’s painstaking reconstruction of the entire saga, including TNR’s incredibly thorough investigation of the entire proceedings, is a model in how a magazine should respond to controversy. Way too many people — people who claimed to only want “truth” — were furious that the magazine would actually take the responsible course of action and thoroughly check and recheck its sources to figure out what actually happened. These same men and women — again, all in the name of truth — are now falsely reporting vindication: they claim that TNR has “admitted” Beauchamp’s stories are “bunk,” when the magazine has done nothing of the sort. But they also seem furious that Foer engaged in the type of serious, cohesive investigation they claimed to have wanted in the first place. The reason appears clear: the investigation uncovers a mountain of evidence supporting Beauchamp’s articles, from a variety of independent sources — more than enough to render TNR’s original publication decision reasonable. They didn’t want the truth. They wanted blood.
Foer has forthrightly admitted error when appropriate (such as keeping Elspeth Reeves — originally just a friend of Beauchamp — as his chief fact-checker after they got married), and agreed that they cannot back Beauchamp’s pieces with the “essential confidence” necessary to stand by them. But the standards he used would be nearly impossible to meet for a first-person war story. As Foer also relates, Beauchamp’s stories were corroborated by nearly an entire company of fellow US Army soldiers — independently and credibly. Perhaps this means TNR shouldn’t publish first person war stories. But it does not mean Beauchamp is a fabricator. Nobody knows the truth behind the fog of war — but the many, many soldiers who backed up Mr. Beauchamp, relenting only under an incredibly heavy and coercive army hand, are strong indicators in his favor.
The shrill right-wingers calling for his head are embarrassing themselves in front of the whole world. There credibility has been damaged far more than TNR’s has or could have been.