Coming home yesterday, the in-flight movie was “The Hoax”, the true story of writer Clifford Irving’s attempt to deceive the world into believing that he was Howard Hughes’ confidante and authorized biographer.  Irving’s dupes, namely his publisher and Life Magazine, had reasons for wanting to believe him.  If he could deliver the product he promised, they would make a lot of money. 

Irving, as brilliantly portrayed by Richard Gere (“brilliant” in the same sentence as “Richard Gere” – who would have thunk it?), observed at the start of his hoax how remarkable it was to be in an industry where he could write a great book and make no money, yet when he forged a couple of pages of Howard Hughes’ hand-writing on lined paper, the same industry nearly shoved $100,000 into his pocket. My point is that people in the media sometimes desperately want to believe things are true, and those biases color their judgment.

THE SUMMER 2007 ISSUE OF THE COLUMBIA MAGAZINE offered a revealing profile of New Republic editor Franklin Foer.  The portrait is especially revealing in light of the Beauchamp scandal.  Here are some jewels from the story:

-         Foer considers the New Republic’s mission to “influence the influentials.”

-         Foer says returning the magazine to its liberal roots is part of his effort “to help The New Republic get its mojo back.”

-         Talking about former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, Foer gushes, “He has the most finely tuned bulls**t meter of any American.  He can pick any argument apart.” Heh.

-         Our Boy Frank’s fondest wish? “I hope The New Republic will have a devil-may-care attitude when it comes to pissing people off.”

For the record, the Columbia Journalism Review reports that Our Boy Frank made the last comment with a grin. 

Richard Miniter’s report yesterday on Scott Beauchamp was fascinating, but it would be a shame if the focus of this story settled on Beauchamp rather than The New Republic.  I’m sure Miniter had that in mind when he framed his story as in inquiry into how the New Republic got suckered.  Again.

Beauchamp is a pathetic fabulist, a young man who went seriously awry.  The New Republic, on the other hand, is supposed to be one of the world’s most prestigious bastions of journalism.  And yet its young editor-in-chief puts a premium “on pissing people off” and “influencing the influentials.”  Truth doesn’t seem to enter the equation, or to be at most a tangential concern.

The bigger story is that The New Republic is hardly an outlier in the world of modern “journalism.”  Many other media outlets also care a lot more about “influencing the influentials” and “pissing people off” than getting a story right.

It probably won’t be long now before Franklin Foer and his reign at The New Republic will be nothing more than a memory.  But the kind of “journalism” that Foer and his merry band of co-conspirators practice isn’t going anywhere.

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