J-Pod,
The Beauchamp affair has also been reminded me of the Stephen Glass debacle, but of a different stage: its beginning, not its end. He and I shared an office suite at Heritage in 1994-95 and got to know each other fairly well (or so I thought). One day, he asked me to lunch and told me that he had been offered an opportunity to work at The New Republic. Knowing that I had spent a year at TNR some time back, he asked if I thought he would enjoy working there. Sure, I said.
Then he looked troubled, admitting that he wasn’t sure he could live up to the journalistic standard there (back when it was perceived to be high).
“No, don’t worry about it,” I said. “You’ll do fine.”
D’oh!