RealClearInvestigation’s Mark Hemingway pointed out in this must-read thread that it was an old article by disgraced New Republic writer Scott Beauchamp that started the whole canceling of actress Ellie Kemper over accusations she was some sort of “KKK princess”:
Thread. Let's talk about Ellie Kemper and cancel culture. The poor woman has basically been libeled for days now by a media ecosystem with horrific incentives. Anyway, do note Twitter's description of the article that got her in trouble — and who wrote it. pic.twitter.com/OEzdFJyJRA
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
First up, there’s no reason to believe there was any racism involved when Kemper participated in the ball in 1999:
In 2014, Scott Beauchamp wrote an article for the Atlantic about the supposedly racist ball that she participated — nevermind that the organization had been integrated before she was born or that she was a teenager at the time she participated in it.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
But, more importantly, the article that started the pile-on was by Beauchamp and that should have been a giant red flag to every blue-check sharing it:
Who's Scott Beauchamp? Well, he's an Iraq vet who, while serving, filed three dispatches for The New Republic, that accused his fellow soldiers of among other things, desecrating corpses, killing dogs for fun, and mocking people disfigured by IEDs.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
You may recall the incident?
Anyway, after The Weekly Standard started questioning Beauchamp's veracity in 2008 there was both an Army investigation and The New Republic itself was forced to try and verify everything. (Beauchamp was married to TNR's fact checker at the time, journalist Elle Reeve so…)
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
“The investigations did not go well”:
These investigations did not go well. TNR wrote a 10,000 word correction saying they couldn't stand by these stories. The Army investigation found he just made stuff up. The Wikipedia article of the controversy is fairly impartial. https://t.co/lZP8BM8trw
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
And — SURPRISE — he’s back to writing for a major publication:
Anyway, I think the truth is more complicated with Beauchamp, and he was defiant about all this at the time. Do I think he's a credible writer? Honestly, it's hard to say. He's certainly written some things I thought were good since then But…
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
…I still find it amazing that he committed a journalistic transgression so bad it basically brought down a magazine, and it wasn't even a blip in his career. Here he is in The Atlantic a few years after being nailed for fabulism pronouncing serious judgment on people and…
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
In summary, Kemper is canceled using an out-of-context article by a writer who was most definitely not canceled:
…already problematic, Beauchamp's piece gets taken wildy out-of-context years later to attack Kemper. Journalism! I don't want anyone "cancelled," but why is it that Kemper is maligned here for, what exactly? And Beauchamp has skated for a very real transgression?
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
And we know why:
Well, we know the answer. Beauchamp's fabulism was excused because he was attacking a Republican president's war hated by the left. Kemper had wealthy white parents who at least socialized with the Bush family. It's all politics.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
Now look at how the media is treating Kemper:
Regardless, several media outlets have now behaved indefensibly toward Kemper. A journalism industry that gleefully participates in this pile-on of Kemper without grace or context deserves to suffer. FIN. pic.twitter.com/djvUQxhMY9
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) June 2, 2021
***
Related:
'Absolute garbage': Ben Shapiro calls out Twitter after Ellie Kemper and 'KKK Princess' trend overnight https://t.co/ofj8HTqmLl
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 1, 2021
‘Enjoy the libel suit’: The AV Club reports that Ellie Kemper is ‘yet another rich white celebrity with a racist past’ https://t.co/vaXTvZLIlw
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 2, 2021
