Katheryn Jean Lopez at The Corner writes:

The Drudge docs that were up earlier can be read here and here and here. I’ve read them very quickly — reads to me like a young soldier in way over his head. I’ve talked to Jonathan Chait at TNR and he doesn’t dispute the accuracy of the documents but he does dispute the analysis that was on Drudge.

On what grounds?

I have to say in my layman’s reading of the three documents, it doesn’t seem to constitute a clear cut “confession.” Again, reads like a kid who is in way too deep and wants out. Does that mean he was lying all along and doesn’t want to continue to? Maybe. But unless I’m misunderstanding — and unless there’s more to what he signed that I realize — I wouldn’t be comfortable calling it a confession.

A commenter at Ace points out a posting from September 7, 2007 on The Plank. It read:

We once again invite the Army to make public Beauchamp’s statements and the details of its investigation–and we ask the Army to let us (or any other media outlet, for that matter) speak to Beauchamp. Unless and until these things happen, we cannot fairly assess any of these reports about Beauchamp–and therefore have no reason to change our own assessment of Beauchamp’s work. If the truth ends up reflecting poorly on our judgment, we will accept responsibility for that. But we also refuse to rush to judgment on our writer or ourselves.”

Huh. Let’s zoom in on that posting.

We once again invite the Army to make public Beauchamp’s statements and the details of its investigation–and we ask the Army to let us (or any other media outlet, for that matter) speak to Beauchamp.

They wanted the Army to let them, “or any other media outlet” speak to Beauchamp. But at the same time they don’t dispute the transcript at Drudge. The transcript is for a phone call that took place between TNR’s editors and Scott Thomas Beauchamp on…September 7. In that phone call, Franklin Foer and Scoblic told Beauchamp, very specifically, not to speak to other media sources first. The argument was that they ran the story and had their rep. on the line. As a matter of fact, Beauchamp turned to the Army officer in the room, who agreed that it would only be fair if he talked to TNR first.