THE LIBERAL DEFENSE PAR EXCELLENCE--"I'M A VICTIM!":

The Lessons of TNR's Baghdad Diarist: The good news about the bad news the magazine is finally accepting (Jack Shafer, Dec. 4, 2007, Slate)

When the Weekly Standard and others attacked Beauchamp's work in July, Foer snottily shot back via the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz. "As the criticism mounts, Foer says he sees an ideological agenda," Kurtz wrote, and went on to quote Foer discounting the prejudices of his attackers: "Conservative bloggers make a bit of a living denying any bad news that emanates from Iraq." In his piece, he muses about the Standard's "ideological motives."

Please! It only stands to reason that TNR's ideological opponents should be the magazine's most intense critics. Foer doubly embarrasses himself by dismissing the arguments because of their origins and by hinting at a conspiracy.

Nor did Foer distinguish himself when he protested to the New York Observer in late October that it was "maddening to see the Army selectively leak" documents to the Drudge Report that he had tried to obtain through official channels. "This fits a pattern in this case where the army has leaked a lot of stuff to right wing blogs," he said.

Politicians disparage selective leaks, not journalists. If only Foer had repressed his sense of victimhood and applauded the release of information rather than whined.

Foer's TNR piece, titled "Fog of War," builds oddly, as if it's mounting a defense of Beauchamp's work and TNR's editing practices. For instance, Foer insists on continuing to call Beauchamp's placement of the now-famous disfigured woman in Iraq rather than Kuwait, where she allegedly suffered abuse, a "mistake." If Beauchamp had a sterling record, you might want to give him that benefit of the doubt. But given what we know about him from Foer's piece alone, he's owed no such deference. As the article turns the corner in the final paragraphs and withdraws its support from the controversial diarist, who has failed to give the magazine the complete cooperation it needs to defend him, it sounds as if Foer is hedging his position. The effect is as if a piece breathing life back into Beauchamp was at the last minute welded to his death portrait. Very odd.

It's only odd if you believe he's accepting responsibility.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2007 9:11 PM