The Adult in the (Chat) Room

Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic editor who was startled to find himself in a secret online group chat with the Trump administration’s top national security officials about an impending military strike, took several actions in response. These can be instructive to all journalists and concerned citizens alike.

The choices Goldberg made illustrate why we are dependent on an alert and aggressive press if we are to maintain our democracy here in the U.S.

• First, he published a story about the matter, but only after the military strike had taken place so as not to endanger military personnel.

• Second, he deleted his email address from the chat group going forward.

• Third, he has withheld (so far) from disclosing certain details from the chat that he thought might conceivably compromise our country’s national security.

In response, the Trump administration has all too predictably denounced him as a “fake” journalist while they scramble to contain the damage from this, the first major scandal of Trump’s second term.

The two officials said to be most responsible for the breach, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and national security advisor Michael Waltz, may face negative consequences if the scandal persists longer than a few days, but what’s more important is to recognize that Goldberg acted more responsibly, and in more enduringly in our national interest than they did.

He was the one adult in a room full of amateurs.

That Goldberg withheld some details he could have chosen to reveal reminds me of a theoretical debate many of us had in the distant past when covering U.S. nuclear secrets.

Some journalists argued back then that we should protect the most sensitive secrets we discovered in the course of our work; others argued that we should disclose them, even if they risked triggering a nuclear war. (I sided with those choosing not to disclose them.)

Government officials like those appointed by Trump will come and go. Some, like Hegseth, are little more than a bad joke. But long before, during and long after their time in office, a free and vigorous press offers the truest kind of national security we as a democratic people require and deserve.

And that in my book makes Jeff Goldberg a true American hero — just by being an honest journalist doing his job.

P.S. I’m certain Goldberg and his attorneys are discussing the option of releasing further details from the chat. Goldberg says he isn’t finished reporting on the matter, and the Trump administration’s prevarications and attacks on him personally may well backfire in the days to come. Stay tuned.

P.S.S. This just in this morning: Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal (Atlantic)

And: Newly shared Signal messages show Trump advisers discussed Yemen attack plans (Guardian)

HEADLINES:

• The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans (Atlantic)

• Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said national security adviser Michael Waltz inadvertently added him to a group chat with Trump administration officials discussing attack plans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who recently made a foolish boast, slammed Goldberg, denying the messages were war plans, even after the White House confirmed they were authentic. One GOP senator conceded the episode amounted to a "huge screwup." [HuffPost]

• Top Trump Officials Try to Downplay Gravity of Signal Chat Leak (NYT)

• What Is Signal and Why Were Trump Officials Using It to Plan a Military Strike? (WSJ)

• Trump downplays national security team texting military operation plan on Signal as a minor 'glitch' (AP)

• Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. Fight the Oligarchy (New Yorker)

• Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down (WP)

• The Social Security crisis, briefly explained (Vox)

• Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request, sources say (Axios)

• America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State (Atlantic)

• 5 high-level CDC officials are leaving in the latest turmoil for the public health agency (AP)

• Kyiv, Moscow agree sea, energy truce; Washington to seek easing Russia sanctions (Reuters)

• U.S. Agrees to Help Russia Boost Exports in Black Sea Truce (WSJ)

• US academic groups sue White House over planned deportations of pro-Gaza students (Guardian)

• Columbia University student sues Trump administration amid potential deportation proceedings (CNN)

• Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary film "No Other Land" in the occupied West Bank before he was detained by the Israeli military, according to two of his fellow directors and other witnesses. [AP]

• Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian director beaten by Israeli settlers, is now released (NPR) 

• Tesla has flirted with disaster before. This time feels different. (Business Insider)

• US visit to Greenland is unacceptable, Danish prime minister says (Reuters)

• An iPad spent five years in a river — then helped crack a murder plot (WP)

• In His Second Term, Trump Fuels a ‘Machinery’ of Misinformation (NYT)

• How to tell when AI models infringe copyright (WP)

• Emboldened by Trump, A.I. Companies Lobby for Fewer Rules (NYT)

• Man Sneaks Bag Of Outside Stimuli Into Sensory Deprivation Tank (The Onion)