Lt. Col. Bob Bateman, military historian and one hell of a bright guy does the best job I’ve seen yet of cutting through the partisan BS surrounding the fabrications peddled by freelance contributors to TNR and NRO and the fake stories they managed to published about Iraq and Lebanon, respectively:
But again, what seems to have happened at the core of this issue was an editor’s willing suspension of disbelief because fact-checking was either “too hard” or because the storyline fit within their own vision of reality. Either way, both NRO and TNR are now covered with muck, and in my opinion that is not good for the nation. We can only hope that both incidents lead to a renaissance of skepticism among editors at these and other publications. That, not personal partisan storylines, is how the nation is best served in the reporting one reads about wars and international relations.
He’s right, but given the nature of the partisan press, and the never-ending quest for sexy exclusives, we’re not holding our breath.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.