Wingnut Blogosphere Calls For Boycott Of New Republic's Advertisers Over Beauchamp Affair
October 29, 2007 -- 7:46 PM EST // //
You knew this was coming: The prominent winger blog Confederate Yankee is actually calling for a boycott of The New Republic's advertisers over the Scott Thomas Beauchamp affair. The call to arms has been linked approvingly by Michelle Malkin, and is now being touted by the usual parade of whackjobs and misfits who tend to goose-step along behind this sort of stuff.
Confederate Yankee is very, very serious about this. He's got lists of advertisers and everything. There's a lot of heavy breathing about coverups and the like. And he's even caught the magazine in another lie: To wit, one of the companies listed says that it hasn't advertised with the mag in a long time, but the mag's media kit nonetheless says that it's a "recent advertiser"! Really, you can't get anything past this Confederate Yankee fellow. He's mighty quick.
At any rate, the call for a boycott, somewhat puzzlingly, also adds this:
I would ask advertisers to pull all of their advertising from the print edition of The New Republic and tnr.com until the senior editors responsible for this debacle are disciplined, with those at the top resigning.Right, but the mag did support the war, remember?The New Republic doesn't have an obligation to support the troops, or support the war in Iraq. It does have an obligation to retract stories for which they can provide no support.
Look, for all I know, the mag will ultimately admit that Beauchamp made up much of what was in his "Baghdad Diarist" columns. But really, this is deeply inane. Judging by how this has unfolded so far, the mag has tried to "provide support" for this, by re-interviewing other soldiers. It has also asked the Army to release the statement that Beauchamp signed about it. Based on what we've seen I see no reason to doubt that TNR would promptly post that statement if the Army gave it to the mag -- whatever it said.
The point is that TNR isn't being permitted by the wingnuts to resolve this honorably, because as the above makes clear, the desperation for another Rathergate is just palpable, and mass resignations at the top of TNR are the only thing that will do. If any of the mag's advertisers get spooked by the sound of jackboots hitting pavement and do pull out of the mag, this would represent a victory for those who don't genuinely want to see any kind of journalistically honorable conclusion to this, not for anyone who does.
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