Bob Steele on the Beauchamp imbroglio

The Poynter Institute is in my backyard (no, not literally!), so the Associated Press story on the Scott Beauchamp story interested me especially.

Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at The Poynter Institute school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla., said granting a writer anonymity "raises questions about authenticity and legitimacy."

Steele said he was troubled by the fact that the magazine did not catch the scene-shifting from Kuwait to Iraq of the incident Beauchamp described involving the disfigured woman.

He added that he was also troubled by the relationship between Beauchamp and Reeve, his wife, who works at The New Republic. "It raises the possible specter of competing loyalties, which could undermine the credibility of the journalism," he said.

(AP, The Hinesburg Journal)

Steele is right on target. This is the New Republic, not far removed from the Stephen Glass reporting scandal (the TNR writer who made up stories).

TNR took the questionable step of publishing stories by an effectively anonymous author. The magazine compounded that error by choosing an anonymous author who was engaged in a romantic relationship with a TNR staffer, and keeping that information from the reader along with the identity of the author.

Steele is correct to identify those aspects of the issue as troubling, but the real scandal in this story (other than the implicit slander of U.S. troops) is that TNR proceeded to publish "Scott Thomas" without carefully fact-checking his work against the troubling backdrop Steele outlined.

Those three editorial decisions will probably cause some heads to roll at the New Republic.

Hat tip to Ace of Spades HQ.