The Hardest Phone Call Franklin Foer Will Ever Have To Make

I've little to add to Geoff's incisive post about the Scott Thomas Beauchamp fiasco. But I can't help but think of the poor TNR staff spending their vacation trying to "re-report" STB's tales of derring-do.

See, TNR editor Franklin Foer reassured us that there was hope for STB's narrative because they were able to "confirm the woman". By which I assume he meant that he had been able to confirm the existence of a female contractor serving somewhere STB had served, and who had been disfigured by an IED. The one whom Beauchamp wrote that he mocked and taunted about her injuries.

Well, since she's real, Franklin Foer is going to have to call her.

She's one of the few people who can confirm the details of Beauchamp's anecdotes. It sounds like it was Beauchamp, Beauchamp's unidentified buddy, and the offended woman who were privy to Scotty's little japes. Maybe she remembers. Maybe she can corroborate him and allay a bit more of the scandal.

Franklin Foer is going to have to call her.

I'm someone who hates making calls. Just normal business calls. Hate 'em. Put 'em off all day. I'll send emails all de doo dah, but to pick up the phone and call a stranger? No thank you sir.

Now imagine having to call someone under these circumstances, someone whose injuries were mocked so unchivalrously by someone acting on your behalf. Imagine pressing those buttons and anticipating the voice on the other end.

Franklin Foer is going to have to call this woman and see if she remembers a little punk at Camp Buehring whose cruelty at the expense of her injuries--terrible injuries suffered in the defense of American freedom, including the freedom of the press to publish the ugly troop-smearing fantasies of pissant sociopaths like Scott Thomas Beauchamp--whose cruelty made her flee in tears.

And here's the kicker: Franklin Foer and the TNR staff are going to hope against hope that she says, yes, I remember that SOB. I'll never forget what he said to me. You mean...you're telling me that that little creep works for The New Republic?

Because if she says no, I don't remember him at all, I'm quite sure nothing like that happened...well, I doubt TNR can recover from that level of deception. So they are in the odd and unenviable position of calling this woman and crossing their fingers that she tells them that one of their employees actually did this reprehensible thing to her.

And if she says that he did, they're going to sigh with relief--and hate themselves for it.