TNR: Down in Flames?

Wow, this punishing expose by Pajamas Media’ Richard Miniter really lifts the lid on some serious problems at The New Republic. Things don’t look good for Franklin Foer & crew. Scott Thomas Beauchamp looks to be more of a millstone around the bi-weekly liberal publication than was the devastating Stephen Glass saga of 1998 – primarily because its leadership wasted no time in dealing with the perpetrator of fraud.

The “batten down the hatches” plan in action now, as highlighted by Miniter, is doing nothing to rescue their credibility. In fact, the ship of print may be quickly crashing in flames – reminiscent of a real disaster some 70 years past:

Quite sad, really, because so much was avoidable on the part of TNR‘s leadership. So easy to accept slander of America’s brave men and women in uniform, so sloppy in its apparently nepotistic system of fact-checking, so quick to heap falsehoods atop fabrications, so steadfast in its denial of countervailing facts, so self-insulating from outside inquiry, so flummoxed and frazzled, so befuddled and bemused, so blithe in its casual dismissal of all remaining credibility … What will be left of the 93-year-old liberal standard after the last ash of this debacle is swept away?

In the wake of Rathergate, another big notch may be added to the belt of some hardworking conservative blogs – led by Dean Barnett, the Weekly Standard‘s Michael Goldfarb, Little Green Footballs, Ace of Spades, and Confederate Yankee, among others. But you must read Miniter’s piece … wow, simply wow.