It looks like it could be time to start rolling out the long German words with respect to the anonymous New Republic Baghdad diarist now revealed as Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp. The word I am thinking of is Schadenfreude, or taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. Even the New York Times is getting into the act in a modest way. Reports Patricia Cohen
An Army investigation into the Baghdad Diarist, a soldier in Iraq who wrote anonymous columns for The New Republic, has concluded that the sometimes shockingly cruel reports were false.
“We are not going into the details of the investigation,” Maj. Steven F. Lamb, deputy public affairs officer in Baghdad, wrote in an e-mail message. “The allegations are false, his platoon and company were interviewed, and no one could substantiate the claims he made.”
And it was the Weekly Standard and conservative bloggers that raised the alarm on Beauchamp’s writings.
Well, actually, I don’t take much pleasure in the troubles of the New Republic. It seems to me that both Beauchamp and the editor of the New Republic, Franklin Foer, are inexperienced young men who just got in too deep.
The big lesson to learn about politics is knowing when you can lie with impunity and when you cannot. It’s a nice point, and it takes a bit of experience to master it.
Anyway, the New Republic is a liberal title and standards just aren’t as high for liberals as they are for conservatives. This can give liberals a false sense of security, because they are used to getting the benefit of the doubt when they get into trouble.
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