Meaningless details and other rightwing obsessions
People like this Michael Goldfarb fellow from the Weekly Standard have been the bane of my existence since back in the day when I actually existed. How’s this for being petty?
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.
What is the problem? Maybe when Goldfarb has a little more experience he’ll see how small-minded this criticism is. As one of my topside protégés at Newsweek, Evan Thomas, put it, “The narrative was right, but the facts were wrong.” Is that okay with you, Mr. Goldfarb?
I learned long ago that facts are nothing but a quagmire. If I’d worried about the “facts” back in Moscow, I’d never have met with Stalin and I’d never have been given this Pultizer of mine. People are always whining about the millions of Ukrainians who were killed by the man I liked to call “Uncle Joe “while I helped cover up his little genocide. The important thing is I got the narrative right.
Dan Rather, Evan Thomas, Scott Thomas (any relation?) Beauchamp all know what Ed Snow, Herb Matthews, Jack Reed and the rest of us professional journalists know: It’s the narrative that matters. Facts just get in the way.
