So closes Week Thirteen of the private inquiry about The New Republic's editorial defense for publishing a trio of falsehoods by an active-duty soldier. Questions of verity have been answered, the public case closed: all claims not true, authenticated in sworn testimony of the auteur himself and men in the Iraq-based company so disparaged. A reckoning was promised by the magazine's head, Franklin Foer — that was in August. Nothing has come. Rumors have indicated the forced vacancy of a few positions, though without corroboration from, as we might want, The New Republic.
A few victories: the series was ended, sensation was revealed to be defamation, an oppositionist here and there is maybe seized with conscience on how they will object in the future. But if there is a dilatory plan being executed, it is working, and all that rightists can do about it is fume, You can't do that!
One case for penalizing The New Republic is analogized in economic terms: "credibility is a publication's only real currency." Plausible, though not an axiom to which an opinion journal is immediately liable. The word "credibility" means "the quality or power of inspiring belief," operative word "belief," as opposed to "trustworthiness." Plenty of the magazine's audience still believe in the stories, period; or believe in them as allegories. There is a great need, particularly on the left, to see the Iraqi campaign as a bouillabaisse of wrongs — somewhere evil occurs, go these thoughts, so resemblance is enough if facts aren't supportive. If The New Republic supplies truth claims that its subscribers accept, it has value.
Another difficulty in censure will be the peerage that continues between periodicals. The weekly head-to-head, right versus left, between National Review's Jonah Goldberg and Peter Beinart — not only of The New Republic but the magazine's former editor — is still on, apparently judged too important to suspend. National Review has editorialized, reproaching The New Republic, but allows one of its staff to — even if by association — legitimize it. Surely Goldberg hasn't been interrogating Beinart or refusing to speak until Beinart extracts information from his colleagues? That has the effect of fixing the exchange rate of the currency.
There are duties to weight The New Republic with, but not towards sentence or resolution, the political press having always dealt in outrages.