Read first, accuse later

In a quest that is alarmingly relentless yet curiously lacking in initiative, Confederate Yankee continues to accuse The New Republic of failing to take "the common-sense step" of fact-checking the Baghdad Diarist submissions of Scott Beauchamp.

Not surprisingly, the doofus himself has failed to take the common-sense step of actually reading all of Beauchamp's dispatches.

Had it not been hidden behind the subscriber firewall, I would have found this example [Beauchamp's second dispatch] of The New Republic's unwillingness to fact check Scott Beauchamp long ago….

And then off the Confederate Yankee gallops, misinterpreting obvious gallows humor (about an organ donor card) as a blatant lie, displaying total ignorance about animal "eyeshine" at nighttime, and scavenging among other meaningless minutiae. I guess all of this is meant to fill the time and allay anxiety until The Overwhelming Success of Our Most Glorious Surge is finally declared in mid-September.

The real fun is watching Mongo the Destroyer and an admirably persistent member of the Sadly, No! Customer Services team* get on the ConYank's case for blogging sloppy.

Had it not been hidden behind the subscriber firewall, I would have found this example of The New Republic's unwillingness to fact check Scott Beauchamp long ago.

Yes, because everyone knows that TNR uses its subscriber firewall to hide articles from prying eyes.
Not like one can actually go out and buy a copy of TNR at your local 7-11.
Those bastids.
Posted by: Mongo the Destroyer

Good gracious, you mean you hadn't actually *read* the Beauchamp material until now?
Because it was 'hidden' in the subscribers-only section?
I'm having trouble believing this…. Did you read what Beauchamp actually wrote, or have you just read quotes of it here and there?
Posted by: Sadly, No! Customer Services

I'm not having trouble believing this. If guys like Bill O'Reilly get paid big bucks to go on the air, day after day and night after night, completely unprepared, why should ConYank refrain from commenting on the accuracy of material he hasn't read (or read in full) in a magazine he's accusing of poor fact-checking.

*Kudos to SN!CS for his funny and accurate point-by-point refutations.