Hello TNR. I'm glad you're reading Bob's site to see what people are saying about your publication. When are you going to publish a wrap up on this debacle? A "What Went Wrong" piece might be the best way to go instead of further obfuscation and finger pointing.

Bob, keep up the good work!

Would a sobbing confession of guilt by Foer satisfy you sadists? You remind me of a cat playing with a mouse.

Banjo - The truth is usually a good starting point. Why is that sadistic?

as much fun as I'm having reading this, remember the TNR has no interest in answering your allegations; from their perspective, you're simply some noise in the distance and your questioning the official story line has no more credibility than the (no) credibility you give those questioning 9/11. While it would be nice if their subscribers left in protest, it's far more likely that they will stay to show their support for the editors for not letting partisan hacks such as yourself keep the editors from speaking truth to power...

Geez, who cares now except for an obsessive few? Old news.

Geez, who cares now except for an obsessive few? Old news.

Har! This nugget coming from the port side, which obsesses over Skull & Bones, 1930s banking relations with the 3d Reich, and the 2000 election.

Not just "har," but "har-de-har-har!" Throw in a ROFL, and we're in business.

Cordially...

P.S. Until TNR comes clean, their motto is Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus.

Do not feed the trolls.

That is all.

Carry on.

Do not feed the trolls.

Pointing and laughing isn't quite feeding them, is it?

Cordially...

Pointing and laughing isn't quite feeding them, is it?

I'm glad multiple sources are keeping at this.

I'm glad the internet allows those sources significant coverage. 15 years ago and the stonewalling would have been completely effective. Today, the main stream media's silence has kept it out of the minds of most people but enough is getting out to be significant.

I just can't wait for the movie version...

Shattered Glass was good, and it ended on a fairly positive, redeeming note with the decisions of the editors to come clean and do real investigations into all of Glass' stories and trot out themselves the stuff they could not verify.

The next movie should be even better, because nervous cultural elites hovering around a table laying out a cover up just makes for better screen action than seeing them do the right thing....

Geez, who cares now

Nobody...as long as the TNR format is officially changed to something along the lines of the pulp Fantasy and Science Fiction.

If they continue purporting to report non-fiction, well that's another story.

After Foer and the senior management of TNR resigns (at the demand of its owners - Foer's career is done, so he won't go willingly), TNR has an opportunity to re-orient its efforts. Numerous examples of exceptional effort in the corporate world have emerged from the collapse of misaligned and misguided firms.

Strong leadership at TNR who is capable of terminating any and all staffers who refuse to accept the highest ethical standard would provide the publication with the foundation to grow, and through a realignment of focus from today's Bushitler derangement to one of objective, investigative exposure of all political wrongs, independent of party, might just be refreshing enough to prevent the publication from probable extinction.

Contrary to the one-dimensional, nuance-lacking simplicity of the Kos crowd, I'd expect most conservatives here would read and support a publication that objectively exposes irresponsible behavior by our politicians regardless of party. I'd welcome any exposure of actual wrongdoing by Republicans. I've been openly critical of Senator Grassley's rainforest pork-fest (a reward to some of his contributors). If the left is to ever have any legitimate complaint about the spiraling budget deficit and debt, it absolutely must join the right on the condemnation of all pork.

There's no shortage of controversy, corruption or unethical behavior from politicans on both sides of the aisle. A clean-slate approach at TNR which rids the organization of most of its current inept and unethical management and enabling staffers is mandatory for it to have any chance of survival.

TNR is thoroughly discredited. Why continue dragging the corpse through the streets?

Foer is slowly turning into toast. He is seemingly petrified at what has happened. To admit to, and to explain what, would topple the stack of beer crates he pontificates from.

>Foer is slowly turning into toast

Foer reminds me of the guy with the goatee, beret and 2.1 GPA in college who used to make "profound observations" about complexities and mysteries that were actually neither complex nor unknown, but just required you actually read the homework and attend class.

For example, TNR's Walter Duranty Reed today pundits: "Why does the team with the worst skills in the league end up with so many pennants?" in reference to his musing on why "observers foreign and domestic have agreed that Americans don't do foreign policy well" yet keep winning the wars.

An objective analyst doesn't immediately proceed to set the context as follows: "Moralistic, uninformed, unsubtle, alternately isolationist and hyperactive, hamstrung by a clumsy constitutional process and a public that oscillates between fatuous idealism and ignorant bellicosity, U.S. foreign policy has been shocking the world for more than 200 years."

With such distorted context, is there any surprise Mead can't find his way out of the wet paper sack?

Instead, a careful review of the subject might reveal that the U.S. has been successful in obtaining correct outcomes precisely because it has recognized at the right times that the so-called field of international affairs is a useless, ineffective domain filled with intellectually idle trust-fund offspring, poseurs, "men of letters" and other contemplators of grand but otherwise useless thoughts.

While much of the European experience has been wasted on these amusements of the aristocracy, the grinders who represent America's real dynamo have learned when to cut off our own persons of international affairs and effect real change through action. While Mead observes the U.S. was capable of "overcoming the opposition of European powers that had larger armies and navies", he immediately confuses the the outcome with inputs, claiming Europeans had: "better-organized policy- making, a more nuanced view of the world, and a less cumbersome political structure (also known as authoritarian rule, which Mead and TNR elites idolize).

It was simply put by my grandfather who was a veteran of WW-II in Europe: The reason the US won the war was explained by the difference in fixing a broken military vehicle. When a European's vehicle broke down, their soldiers would sit passively until an authorized repair technician could arrive to perform an assessment and communicate recommendations back to the "better-organized policy-making" institution. On the other hand, when a U.S. Jeep broke down, a handful of lowly, unqualified GIs would jump out and tinker with it until it was fixed.

Indeed, Americans lack what is more correctly referred to as poseur-nuance. They're incapable of deferring action through excessive contemplation which serves as a process for deferring responsibility. They instead convert observations to actions and effect productive outcomes.

From reading Duranty-Mead's column, there's no surprise that nobody in TNR has the capacity to take any action necessary to save the failing organization. They'll hide, defer, contemplate and ultimately avoid all accountability until the organization they are responsible for fails.

The corpse is still being dragged through the street, because the publican is still taken as a "serious" outlet in our society and those who put it out continue to refuse to rectify the situation. As noted by several in this thread, and in the post, TNR took a lot of heat for the Glass debacle, but they also received credit for having done the right thing when the lies were brought to a head.

As for TNR turning itself around, I think one part of the problem with it is the same with media coverage over all ---- they have cut the budgets so far, except for the mammoth salaries some of the very top people get in the big organizations, they have forced themselves to rely on younger and younger people in higher and higher positions.

I'm not trying to be age-ist here, but the higher percentage of 20-somethings you have running the show, the more likely you are going to get people who are too green or too immature or too loose with rules, and the more you trust them in key positions and in key roles, the more you're going to get burned.

Banjo, mind telling us all why you object to keeping the pressure on TNR?

> but the higher percentage of 20-somethings you have running the show...

I'd suggest its more generalized than that; the higher the percentage of persons in positions of authority that don't understand there are other references -- standards, best practices, case studies of miserable failures, etc. -- the more likely failure is as an outcome.

I'm consistently amazed at how progressives refuse to reference other sources for guidance. In business, they're usually the most likely to re-invent wheels. Like my previous comment about the goatee beret-wearing slacker, their refusal to actually do the homework causes them to suffer avoidable consequences. Unfortunately, their disregard for crisis response standards compounds their disregard for corporate ethics, the failing of their organizational controls, and numerous other meltdowns which indicate a brand likely to be soon discontinued per catastrophic, irrecoverable failure.

It's unfortunate; TNR is increasingly a consultant's dream. I'd walk in with parent ownership on day one, explaining the classic crisis management case studies (e.g. the classic Tylenol quick-response strategy - see here for details: http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/crisis02.html ). All the basics are there - defuse the crisis, stop digging holes, acknowledge the harm, clearly communicate a response, and by all means, MEAN WHAT YOU DO by showing it with clear action. Fire Foer tomorrow and terminate all of the staff, run the brand from another publication in transition, and re-seed the brand with qualified, ethical professionals and you have a chance at recovering the CanWest investment. Otherwise, it's a terminally wounded dog destined to irrecoverable losses.

Apparently, the TNR disaster suggests that parent management at CanWest is in serious jeopardy. That Foer would trash a single brand is unsurprising; that CanWest can't seem to integrate and control the brand is an indication of serious troubles overall. Perhaps CanWest will serve as a definitive case study of the dangers of mixing politics and media ownership.

Bob, it is only through your hard work, persistence and drive that this story exists where it is today. Having Drudge get the hits on the final nail will NEVER change the fact that you made this story! You did us all proud: without your well written, well researched, and well documented work I would never have had a chance to learn how far TNR would fall.
You have done this in the past, your reports are a must read, and your efforts are noticed.

Thank you.

most interested in banjos concern about dragging the corpse around the walls of troy--has TNR said anything that would suggest mercy should be considered? Until TNR and their idiot editors acknowledge they lied like rugs and debased journalism, the corpse should be dragged around until it disappears in tatters. Go achilles!

"My priority is to put out the most intellectually provocative, intellectually honest magazine possible."

He said honest, not factual. Those are different terms on the left wing. I'd say in his mind he's upheld his promise.

This was so well said it's worth repeating:

"Far from intellectual honesty, the senior editor staff of The New Republic have proven their intractable corruption. Editor Franklin Foer, Executive Editor J. Peter Scoblic, and Senior Editor Jason Zengerle failed to do their jobs as editors, published a false story (though there are indications that all three of the author's stories were fabricated, in whole or in part), more than likely lied when they claimed the allegations made had been fact-checked prior to publication, and then ran a false investigation that involved misrepresenting the claims of at least one expert, while attempting to bury the story and exerting influence over the author to cancel interviews with other interested publications."

Unfortunately, TNR as well as the rest of the mainstream "news" media know that they can get away with it. Who will hold them accountable? Certainly not a member of their cozy little club.

This continues to have a disproportionate impact on women and minorities.

Kinda curious abour a point from the transcript, when TNR (not the Army) is pressuring PV1 Beauchamp. The editors tell the Private that he will never be able to go back to writing.

If he has been telling the truth the whole time AND TNR was not Fairbanksing-up his dispatches, then what is keeping him from writing in the future?

Robert Fisk still has a job, and he is still writing phony stories. Eve Fairbanks still has a job with TNR, as an Editor no less, and she still has a job. Maureen Dowd too, for that matter.