Lede Buried in a Fog of Words

This post's mixed metaphor title is an apt description of TNR editor Franklin Foer's Fog of War; a 14 page explanation obfuscation of the lack of confidence Foer now has in Shook Troops solider-diarist-fabulist Scott Thomas/Beauchamp.

The sotto voce, mea minima culpa comes on the last page:

...When I last spoke with Beauchamp in early November, he continued to stand by his stories. Unfortunately, the standards of this magazine require more than that. And, in light of the evidence available to us, after months of intensive re-reporting, we cannot be confident that the events in his pieces occurred in exactly the manner that he described them. Without that essential confidence, we cannot stand by these stories.

Instapundit delivers the coup de grâce:

AMIDST A CLOUD OF INK, TNR RETRACTS AND FLEES THE SCENE.