One more post on Elspeth Reeve (Beauchamp)

I ran across a suitable postscript for my tentative final assessment of the Elspeth Reeve portion of the TNR/Scott Thomas/Scott Beauchamp saga.

I had judged that Elspeth Reeve shares some of the fault for the problems at TNR for not taking note of the ethical quagmire of fact-checking hubby's stories.

In an interview Friday, U.S. Army private Scott Thomas Beauchamp's wife Elspeth Reeve, a former reporter-researcher at The New Republic, told the Observer that she was excited when someone at the magazine assigned her to fact-check one of her husband's dispatches from Iraq.

“I was like, 'Sweet! I can talk to Scott on TNR’s dime!'” Ms. Reeve said.
(The New York Observer)

The blurb above attaches to a subsequent story also printed in the Observer. It makes Reeve appear a bit flakier than I suspected since she appears to stand behind Beauchamp's stories and provides no indication that she realizes that she stepped in ethical doo-doo by accepting the fact checking assignment. Though TNR rightly gets top billing in the blame department on that one.

clipped from www.observer.com

Best wishes to the happy couple; may they leave the TNR snafu far in their wake. And consider careers outside of journalism.

*****

Beauchamp appendix: Pajamas Media interviews Major Cross

Bob Owens interviewed Major John Cross for Pajamas Media. Major Cross led the investigation into the events Scott Beauchamp, writing as "Scott Thomas," reported in a series of stories for The New Republic.

Of note:

Owens: Do you think it is likely that some soldiers may have told The New Republic one story, and then provided a different story to investigating officers?

Cross: I can’t speculate about anything involving The New Republic, but I can speak to our procedures. When conducting the investigation, I focused on the information and evidence collected from the Soldiers in PVT Beauchamp’s unit in the form of written and signed affidavits, which did not support the events portrayed in the story. As all of the Soldiers interviewed during the course of the investigation made sworn statements, they understand the consequences of making false official statements.

(read the rest at Pajamas Media)

My source said that everything Beauchamp wrote was true (apparently including the FOB Falcon location for the mess hall incident). Evidently he wasn't part of the investigation. Or maybe Major Cross just doesn't remember.

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.

The return of Pong: The Beauchamp saga in the news (Updated)

Not by much trailing the Weekly Standard's announcement that Scott Beauchamp had recanted his "Shock Troops" claims, the New Republic weighed in with another statement at The Plank:

We've talked to military personnel directly involved in the events that Scott Thomas Beauchamp described, and they corroborated his account as detailed in our statement. When we called Army spokesman Major Steven F. Lamb and asked about an anonymously sourced allegation that Beauchamp had recanted his articles in a sworn statement, he told us, "I have no knowledge of that." He added, "If someone is speaking anonymously [to The Weekly Standard], they are on their own."
(TNR)

So, at least one of the publications will get egg on its face regarding its publishing standards--and possibly both! This back-and-forth is getting funny.

The announcement at the Plank doesn't refute the report from the Weekly Standard, of course. It simply tells us what we already knew--that the report wasn't yet official--and that Major Steven F. Lamb doesn't know the outcome (assuming he's telling the truth).

clipped from www.e-oss.net

Time will tell.

Update:
And maybe sooner rather than later (hat tip to Michelle Malkin)

This morning, military officials said their review is over. "The investigation is complete and the allegations from PVT Beauchamp are false," Maj. Steven Lamb, a spokesman for Multi National Division-Baghdad, says in an e-mail to On Deadline. "Anything that may or may not happen from his actions are personnel related and we don't share that publicly."
(USA Today)

To explain the obvious, which Michelle Malkin declined to do for understandable reasons, USA Today is claiming to have confirmation that Beauchamps claims were false from the same source that the New Republic is using to debunk claims their man Beauchamp peddled bunkum.

Refer up a few paragraphs to the graphic, and prepare for the next volley.

What of Elspeth Reeve?

This is all opinion.
***

In an earlier post, I wrote that Elspeth Reeve/Elspeth Beauchamp's communications with Scott Beauchamp would be an interesting issue if the latter's stories were factually undermined.

For now, my sense on that issue is that it wouldn't be interesting except in terms of human interest.

From what I've seen of Reeve's writing--and I've surveyed a decent amount--she hews tight to proper journalistic standards with the possible exception of the story she wrote about the abortion protest in Washington (featuring personal acquaintances as sources?). I'd find it hard to believe that she had anything to do with Beauchamp's handling of fact, working for now on the assumption that Beauchamp's retraction is what it seems to be.

My best guess is that Beauchamp began to smell glory and tried to impress TNR (and Mrs. Beauchamp). I doubt TNR gave Elspeth Beauchamp any role in fact-checking hubby's stories. That would be beyond reckless.

Expect the fault to fall on Beauchamp for embellishing his stories with exaggeration and/or lies, and on the editorial staff at TNR for not having sufficient olfactory powers to flunk Beauchamp themselves on the sniff test.

The Weekly Standard: "Beauchamp recants"

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned from a military source close to the investigation that Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp--author of the much-disputed "Shock Troops" article in the New Republic's July 23 issue as well as two previous "Baghdad Diarist" columns--signed a sworn statement admitting that all three articles he published in the New Republic were exaggerations and falsehoods--fabrications containing only "a smidgen of truth," in the words of our source.
(The Weekly Standard)

Hmmm. That didn't take long.

I'll admit that I find it a bit odd that Beauchamp offered his recantation via signing a sworn statement. I'd have expected the admission to come through verbal testimony. But maybe I just don't understand the way the military operates.

Though this is the outcome I expected (exaggeration based on a germ of truth), I'm keeping the book open on this one.

I expect to see more on this story from the other side, including the New Republic. Plus I'd like to see a more complete story from the armed services, including the text of the sworn statement.

Kevin Drum not quite up to analyzing TNR fact check

SCOTT THOMAS FOLLOWUP....Remember Scott Thomas Beauchamp, the soldier in Iraq who wrote a piece last month for the New Republic in which he recounted stories of (a) mocking a disfigured woman, (b) a fellow soldier who wore a piece of a child's skull he had found, and (c) another fellow soldier who ran over dogs with his Bradley fighting vehicle? Well, TNR has just put up their investigation into Beauchamp's piece, which included talking with "current and former soldiers, forensic experts, and other journalists who have covered the war extensively, [and] five other members of Beauchamp's company."

The result? They "all corroborated Beauchamp's anecdotes, which they witnessed or, in the case of one solider, heard about contemporaneously." The only error they uncovered was that one of the incidents apparently took place at an Army base in Kuwait, not Iraq.
(CBS News, Washington Monthly)

Oh, well if TNR says everything checked out then end of story. In fact, we must wonder why anybody questioned the story in the first place. After all, if it appeared in TNR then it must be true.

Drum's apparent disinclination to examine the nature of TNR's statement, and his failure to make his own mention of the admitted inaccuracy of the Thomas story is jaw-dropping.

I wonder if his inability to sniff out inconsistency and irrelevancy in an official statement characterizes his entire career in journalism?

TNR makes a statement on Scott Beauchamp

The New Republic surprised me by updating their examination of Scott Thomas' Beauchamp's "Shock Troops" story.

Beauchamp's essay consisted of three discrete anecdotes. In the first, Beauchamp recounted how he and a fellow soldier mocked a disfigured woman seated near them in a dining hall. Three soldiers with whom TNR has spoken have said they repeatedly saw the same facially disfigured woman. One was the soldier specifically mentioned in the Diarist. He told us: "We were really poking fun at her; it was just me and Scott, the day that I made that comment. We were pretty loud. She was sitting at the table behind me. We were at the end of the table. I believe that there were a few people a few feet to the right."

The recollections of these three soldiers differ from Beauchamp's on one significant detail (the only fact in the piece that we have determined to be inaccurate): They say the conversation occurred at Camp Buehring, in Kuwait, prior to the unit's arrival in Iraq. When presented with this important discrepancy, Beauchamp acknowledged his error. We sincerely regret this mistake.
(The New Republic)

I am slightly surprised that TNR calls it an "important discrepancy." It's true that it's an important discrepancy, because of how it works into the time line of events. As Spree at Wake up America noted, the Kuwait location puts the incident prior to Beauchamp's participation in hostilities, and just a short period of weeks (or even days) after leaving Germany. The digression of character, at least in the case of Beauchamp, preceded his involvement in armed hostilities. Perhaps his friend had previous service in a war zone.
The friend's report contains an additional and more subtle discrepancy. Where Beauchamp describes an "unusually crowded" dining area, the anonymous supporting witness says "I believe that there were a few people a few feet to the right." That seems like an unusual detail if the hall were unusually crowded.

TNR claimed a degree of corroboration for the graveyard tale:

More important, two witnesses have corroborated Beauchamp's account. One wrote in an e-mail: "I can wholeheartedly verify the finding of the bones; U.S. troops (in my unit) discovered human remains in the manner described in 'Shock Troopers.' [sic] ... [We] did not report it; there was no need to. The bodies weren't freshly killed and thus the crime hadn't been committed while we were in control of the sector of operations." On the phone, this soldier later told us that he had witnessed another soldier wearing the skull fragment just as Beauchamp recounted: "It fit like a yarmulke," he said.

I wonder how the second witness contributed to the corroboration?

My problem with this story has always been the problem of having a child's skull fragment fit an adult's skull "like a yarmulke." The skulls of children, at least in my experience, tend to be smaller than those of adults. I need more than anonymous verification to accept that detail. I don't rule out the possibility that it could happen, but I'm certainly skeptical. Maybe the adult had a tiny head, and the fragment came from a child with a great big skull. Not likely, but conceivable.

Spree also rightly noted that it was a stretch at best for TNR to claim that the Beauchamp account was consistent with a report of a "children's cemetary" appearing in The Weekly Standard. The anonymous witness improved on the Beauchamp account by refraining from placing the origin of the burial in the Hussein era. TNR, nonetheless, double-checked with a forensic pathologist the possibility of tufts of hair clinging to a "long-buried" skull. It seems to me that the "rotting flesh" was a bigger problem than the tufts of hair. I wonder what the forensic pathologist had to say about that?

He observed that he was grateful his hair had just been cut--since it would make it easier to pick out the pieces of rotting flesh that were digging into his head.
(TNR, "Shock Troops" by Scott Thomas)

It's possible that the "joker and troublemaker" made the statement attributed to him by Beauchamp even if there were no bits of rotting flesh left on the skull. Or Beauchamp could have embellished his account.

TNR did a nice job clarifying the maneuverability of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle--but I still have a problem with that account, also.

The Bradley has tracks, like a tank.

If I'm an editor for this story, I'm wondering how an animal can be "dragged" by a track vehicle by having its extremity caught in the tracks.

He slowed the Bradley down to lure the first kill in, and, as the diesel engine grew quieter, the dog walked close enough for him to jerk the machine hard to the right and snag its leg under the tracks. The leg caught, and he dragged the dog for a little while, until it disengaged and lay twitching in the road.
(TNR, "Shock Troops" by Scott Thomas)

Run the video and try to imagine it.

If the dog is caught in the tracks, the only dragging that will happen is when the body is pulled from the rear of the vehicle to the front of the vehicle with the top portion of the track. That type of dragging would be worthy of some description in an account with the type of theme that Beauchamp apparently intended.
Could the dog be caught other than in the tracks? I don't see how (and Beauchamp doesn't describe it other than being caught in the tracks), but perhaps a veteran with Bradley experience can shed some light on that point.

This one reads to me like the type of embellishment a mechanically disinclined person might imagine (when he's not thinking that people commit suicide by sticking their heads in the oven via the heat of the oven).

The doubts about this story are too substantial to be treated with anonymous and incomplete corroboration.

A Scott Beauchamp time line

Scott Thomas Beauchamp, writing as "Scott Thomas," had three stories published in the New Republic. The last of the three, "Shock Troops," caused a stir of criticism from people who found the accounts unbelievable (for a variety of reasons).

As the criticism mounted TNR editor Franklin Foer defended the reliability of the author, then only known to the public as "Scott Thomas," and pledged to verify the accounts.

Staffers at TNR have vacations coming up, so it appears that the verification of fact will not occur imminently.

Aside from the issue of veracity, TNR has made itself vulnerable to criticism regarding its choice of Beauchamp as its war correspondent. With the idea of assisting that debate, I offer the following time line (OK, it's not a "line" as such but it sets forth a rough chronology).

• Scott Beauchamp and Elspeth Reeve associated at the Missouri School of Journalism (~2005)
  
• Beauchamp in Europe by June of 2006--probably already in the armed services
• Beauchamp develops relationship with girl in Germany
• Beauchamp deployed to Kuwait by September 2006, engaged to girl in Germany
• "War Bonds" published in TNR 1/29/07
  
• Beauchamp serves in Iraq from Sept. 2006 through April 2007, at which time he receives 2 weeks R&R.
• Marries Elspeth Reeve rather than the aforementioned fiancee, returns to duty somewhat after he was supposed to arrive.
• "Dead of Night" published 6/7/07
• "Shock Troops" published 7/13/07
• Criticism of "Shock Troops" begins and builds
• Beauchamp publicly identifies himself through TNR
  
• Army takes away his laptop and telephone
  
• Foer confirms for Howard Kurtz that Beauchamp is married to a TNR staffer (7/27/07)
  

A great many details did not warrant mention, since they do not obviously relate to Beauchamp's relationship to TNR.

One detail should stand out, however. A number of commentators have suggested that Beauchamp was chosen because of his marriage to Reeve, or at least on the basis of his romantic relationship to Reeve. Most likely, Beauchamp knew that Reeve was employed at TNR. A number of the students in the Missouri School of Journalism appear to have maintained ties. It doesn't really matter whether Beauchamp contacted TNR because of Reeve or vice-versa. It appears that the initial contact was probably prompted by platonic familiarity rather than because of a romantic relationship.

On the other hand, the romantic relationship seems to have rapidly flowered with the onset of the professional association in spite of the problem of distance. Perhaps one day somebody will tell that story.

Within six months of deployment, Beauchamp is published as "Scott Thomas," and a scant four months later, by all appearances, he had wed Ms. Reeve (about 8 months after Beauchamp announced his intent to marry the girl in Germany).

Does this have any relevance to TNRs professional relationship with Beauchamp? That's hard to say, at this point. It seems that Beauchamp and Reeve must have communicated with one another extensively, or else it seems difficult to explain how Beauchamp could dump the girl in Germany for Reeve.

Could Reeve have coached Beauchamp regarding his stories, helping them conform to the TNR template in terms of style if not in terms of tone and theme? That question turns rapidly interesting if Beauchamp's account is factually undermined. For my part, I don't think the public (including me) has enough information yet to render sound judgment.

Filling in some of the history on Scott Thomas Beauchamp

Over the past year Scott Thomas Beauchamp appears to have gone AWOL, as well as dumping a girl to whom he was engaged in favor of the union with Elspeth Reeve of the New Republic.

A member of the jilted girl's family offered an account of Beauchamp that had him shipping out for Iraq in September of 2006, after entering into an engagement relationship with "Priscilla" (as she is called on Beauchamp's MySpace page).

In April, according to this source, Beauchamp was granted two weeks of R&R. He used the time to travel to Germany, without informing his fiancee in spite of their proximity. Beauchamp apparently married Elspeth Reeve during this span of time, and evidently his failure to report for duty on time resulted in his demotion from SP4 to PV2.

Yo Champ, let me know where your at, moon said you should have been back already. well just let me know. later
("majmaj", at the Beauchamp Myspace page, May 16 2007 8:51 a.m.)

***
Know as little as I do about military rank?

E1. . . PV1 PVT. . . . . . Private
E2. . . PV2 PVT. . . . . . Private
E3. . . PFC . . . . . . . . Private First Class
E4. . . CPL SP4. . . . . . Corporal / Specialist Four
E5. . . SGT SP5. . . . . . Sergeant / Specialist Five
(NoQuarter.org)

Fleshing out the Beauchamp-Reeve marriage hypothesis

My original post on the Beauchamp-Reeve marriage hypothesis was a bit lacking in detail in support of certain details. That was because I was posting late at night and mainly just wanted to publish the apparent connection between "a real spicy braudra" and Elspeth Reeve--a connection that hadn't been made in the reporting up through that time, from what I can tell. [Update: it turns out that a connection isn't likely after all]

Ace of Spades is still uncertain about the time-line, but he can be more confident in his reconstruction than he thought.
I'm not going to document each of these points, since the marriage has already been confirmed.

• Ace noted the existence of a registry, anticipating an October wedding
• Ace noted the connection between the two at a Missouri college
• Beachamp's blogging contains a report of his marriage (apparently in Germany)
• "a real spicy braudra" posts to Beauchamp's blog, expressing love and longing

Other comments indicate anger at Beauchamp, referring to him as an "asshole," for instance.
I considered that the complaints might have indicated anger at the early wedding; one post talked about how lousy of Beauchamp it was to do something during graduation week [actually before finals--BW].

All of the anger, however, seems to stem from one group of ladies.

And all of them seem to be in Germany.

So, I'm not sure what to make of it, but one possibility is that Beauchamp romanced "Priscilla" while he was away from Elspeth. Then he married Elspeth, with the result that Priscilla's family got torqued. Yeah, just guessing.

Mrs. Scott Beauchamp? Update: Hypothesis confirmed (Updated x3)

Various blogs have made the connection between Scott Thomas Beauchamp and Elspeth Reeve--the latter an employee of The New Republic.

Reeve is from Atlanta.

Reeve, BJ '05, earned degrees in magazine journalism and political science. From Atlanta, Ga., she received a certificate of merit for her article, "Behind the Bars." The article, which was printed in Vox, was part of a four-article series and examined the criminal justice system in the United States. Vox is an award-winning weekly city magazine that appears in the Missourian.

Upon graduation, Reeve interned at Time magazine and now works for the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C.

(Missouri School of Journalism)

And that helped put some context to some of Beauchamp's Myspace comments:

clipped from profile.myspace.com a real spicy braudra Apr 3 2007 11:04A what i wouldn't give for a long walk/talk around chimney springs. i love you i miss you

Where's Chimney Springs?

Southwest of Atlanta.

Chimney Springs was the fastest growing community in Atlanta from 1976 through the early 1980's.
(Chimney Springs Homeowners Association)

It seems that Beauchamp married Reeve earlier than they had planned (in Germany?). Braudra dropped a number of additional clues, by the way, indicating intimacy with Beauchamp.

Mar 23 2007 2:51P

too much space between.

how is life unfolding?

i miss you and i want to know everything.

TNR offices compared to Germany?

Mar 13 2007 10:57A

i miss you.

There are a few interesting comments from ARSB in various MySpace locations.

Anyhoo, the connection between Reeve and Beauchamp does appear to explain TNR's choice of Scott Thomas as their intrepid war correspondent.
Now let's see if his stories check out or not.

Update: Oh, and I'd bet $20 that the quotation used by "a real spicy braudra"

"stuffing her shadow in her mouth as she goes"

was written by Scott Beauchamp.

Update: Confirmation, via Howard Kurtz (hat tip to Dean Barnett posting at HughHewitt.townhall.com):

The magazine's editor, Franklin Foer, disclosed in an interview that Beauchamp is married to a New Republic staffer, and that is "part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer." Foer also said Beauchamp "has put himself in significant jeopardy" and "lost his lifeline to the rest of the world" because military officials have taken away his laptop, cellphone and e-mail privileges.

(the Washington Post)

Update II, Correction: Whether because of a faulty map or a temporary inability to properly read a map, Chimney Springs is northwestern suburb of Atlanta rather than to the city's southwest as I had earlier reported.

Update III: Correction: Though the reasoning that led to the conclusion that "a real spicy braudra" was Elspeth Reeve was reasonable, it seems safe to conclude that it was wrong. That MySpace identity appears to belong to a different friend of Scott Beauchamp who, like E. Reeve, was from Atlanta and living in the Northeastern United States.

THE Scott Beauchamp?

Found a bicycle racing team discussion board talking about Scott Beauchamp's auto accident and subsequent recovery.

Part of the explanation for the difficulties that prompted his enlistment (other than pursuing the Muse)?
Or is the Missouri location (Columbia) a coincidence?

Update: Coincidence.