What’s happened to The News?
The following was first published on SHARYL ATTKISSON‘s free Substack
The following is a news analysis.
The Trump administration is caught in yet another media storm: aides using the Signal app to discuss sensitive matters, accused of skirting federal record-keeping laws. (Meantime, I’ve been pointing out for two decades how top federal officials and their staff have long been using text messaging, aliases, personal servers, and other methods to circumvent record keeping requirements and Freedom of Information law.)
Anyway, the newest accusations are sparking outrage on both sides. But they’re just the latest act in a tiresome play—one where “the news,” now often little more than propaganda tools and gossip rags for both political sides and the special money interests backing them, amplifies selective scandals while glossing over a history of similar, often graver, breaches that drew scant ire and fewer consequences from the same players now stoking the flames.
I’m not suggesting the answer lies in all such scandals receiving similar play in the news media. I’m suggesting that the news media get back to the business of reporting the news that impacts the general public rather than what the players in Washington DC and their supporters want us to consume.
Read on for details.
First, as far as the selective pearl-clutching over the Trump administration’s use of Signal, we can start with the example of James Comey, former FBI Director.
In August 2019, the DOJ Inspector General’s report, “Report of Investigation of Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey’s Disclosure of Sensitive Investigative Information and Handling of Certain Memoranda,” found that Comey, fired by Trump in May 2017, wrongly took FBI memos about their interactions and kept them in his personal possession. Several of the documents contained classified info—“Secret” and “Confidential”—including anti-Trump material. The IG noted that Comey even shared these with his lawyers, and one of the documents was purposefully leaked to The New York Times in order to hurt then-President Trump.
The DOJ IG referred Comey for prosecution—a momentous referral that was downplayed in the news—but Comey avoided charges when the DOJ declined to bring them in August of 2019, citing insufficient evidence of ill intent. (I hope if I’m ever commit a bad crime I can convince prosecutors to forget about it all by telling them I meant no harm.)
Anyway, the Comey revelations flickered, then faded—a minor blip for the propaganda machine compared to today’s Signal frenzy.
Then there was Hillary Clinton’s saga. As Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, she improperly ran sensitive and classified State Department business through her private email server in violation of explicit security rules and record keeping laws.
The FBI’s July 2016 probe into Clinton’s actions found 110 emails with classified data—some “Top Secret”—on that unsecured system. FBI Director Comey’s July 5, 2016, statement about the breach warned that “hostile actors,” possibly Russia, might have accessed the material.
Yet, as The New York Times reported on July 6, 2016, Comey deemed Clinton’s behavior “extremely careless” but not criminal, and the DOJ followed suit deciding to file no charges. ‘After all, she meant no harm,’ they said. Backed by deep-pocketed allies.
Joe Biden’s turn came in February 2023.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report in February of 2023 revealed that Biden, post-Senate and vice presidency (ending January 2017), improperly kept classified documents at his Wilmington, Delaware, home and the Penn Biden Center. Marked up to “Top Secret,” these documents covered military and foreign policy.
Exposed in late 2022 and early 2023 in several revelations of caches, they triggered a review. But Hur concluded, as quoted, “no criminal charges are warranted,” citing the fact that the Biden folks had supposedly cooperated with the investigation. Not surprisingly, Biden’s DOJ agreed, and the story—despite its weight—pretty much vanished from the headlines, a non-issue for the political interests swaying the narratives. After all, Biden meant no harm.
Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president from 2017 to 2021, fits the pattern too. NBC News reported on February 10, 2023, that classified documents from his tenure turned up at his Indiana home in January 2023. Pence handed them over, and by June 2023, the DOJ declined prosecution of him, too. After all, he surely meant no harm. The whole matter barely made waves.
Shocking national security breaches of the recent past
For all the hand-wringing in the news media over supposed national security breaches, we should recall the case of Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2009 to 2015. In 2018, it was revealed that for nearly 20 years, including while she headed the Intel Committee, a staffer who doubled as her driver and liaison to the Asian-American community, was a Chinese spy reporting to China’s Ministry of State Security via the San Francisco Consulate.
We only later learned that the FBI had briefed Feinstein to this fact in 2013. She fired the aide but no charges followed. The FBI kept mum on Feinstein’s dirty little secret as she continued to hold an important position of power and sway over intel community matters. There were no pesky FBI leaks that have so frequently been used against Donald Trump.
However, after Feinstein had an open dispute with the CIA and unilaterally released a transcript of damning testimony related to the politically-motivated “Russia, Russia, Russia’“ probe of Trump in January 2018, someone mysteriously leaked the story about her Chinese driver to Politico.
Then there’s Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat and House Intelligence Committee member since 2015. In 2020, Axios revealed that from 2011 to 2015, Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese operative, cozied up to Swalwell—raising funds for his 2014 campaign and placing an intern in his office.
The FBI warned Swalwell in 2015, he reportedly cut ties, and the scandal quickly faded.
Add to the roster the case of the Awan Brothers. From 2004 to 2017, these Pakistani-American IT staffers worked for dozens of House Democrats, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman, with access to sensitive congressional systems.
In 2017, the House Inspector General (IG) found shocking security breaches saying that the Awans had engaged in “numerous violations of House security policies,” including unauthorized access to Democrats’ servers, funneling data to an external server, and accessing the Congressional accounts from Pakistan.
During the same time period, with Wasserman heading up the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the DNC computer system reportedly was broken into. The DNC blamed the Russians but wouldn’t give the FBI access to investigate, fueling speculation that Wasserman’s tech hire, Imran Awan, might have been involved. However, she defended him.
Imran Awan was arrested on July 25, 2017 at Dulles Airport on bank fraud charges, but prosecutors shocked the Inspector General and others who had investigated the case by deciding there was “no evidence” of illegal activity regarding the Awan’s unauthorized access to high ranking Democrats’ computer systems. The Department of Justice declined to pursue related charges, fueling speculation of a coverup. Democrats didn’t seem to mind that their computers had been accessed. The Awans denied any wrongdoing.
Go back even further to Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton’s National Security Adviser from 1997 to 2001. In April of 2005, The Washington Post reported that Berger pleaded guilty in the case of stealing classified documents he saw as damning to the Clinton administration from the National Archives in 2003, smuggling them out in his socks.
Berger pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, paid a $50,000 fine, and got a three-year security clearance ban—no jail. The media barely shrugged.
The Signal Flap
Now, the Signal flap.
Trump aides allegedly used the app for internal talks, possibly touching sensitive topics, though the Trump administration insists nothing was classified.
The outrage machine—fueled by partisan donors and pundits—kicked into high gear. Yet, absent hard evidence of breaches, this scandal is actually quite tame next to Comey’s leaks that ended up in the news press as part of political warfare, Clinton’s server that may have been accessed by the Russians, Biden’s stashes that were accessible to who knows how many people, Pence’s papers, Chinese spy connections to important Democrats, allegations against the Awans, or Berger’s socks.
The big, sordid picture
Besides the selective pearl-clutching, I see a bigger issue.
The news has allowed itself to be turned into a megaphone for political and special interests and their backers to push propaganda and gossip. They use the press to debate what is little more than the political interests’ own inside baseball, while real issues rot in the dugout.
An example implicating the Republican side includes Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s March 22 jab at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is confined to a wheelchair. In public statements, she referred to him as “Governor Hot Wheels.” (She says she was simply criticizing him for using all kinds of transportation to send illegal immigrants from Texas to big cities throughout America.)
The headlines became filled with accounts of Crockett’s remarks, outrage, and demands for apologies and censure. All for an issue that likely matters not at all to the average American.
It raises important questions—What news more impactful to the average American is getting crowded out by this political tit-for-tat? Who benefits from the news being filled by the same few stories of outrage that often qualify as little more than seedy gossip? The political class and their funders, not the public.
Today if you tune into the cable news channels or online sources, you’ll see a homogenous blend of the same few stories with little real news: Signal, Crockett, Trump, repeat.
Yes, these stories warrant a mention. We should report Signal, note Crockett’s quip, and update as facts emerge. But when they drown out so much else, they’re less news and more of a scripted distraction, ultimately pushed by special interests to keep us busy listening to both sides debating their scandals.
It’s hard not to conclude that the news has largely become something other than the news. It’s often no longer about informing. It’s a propaganda tool manipulated by political insiders and their backers. Thousands of stories—ones that actually affect Americans—languish while we’re spoon-fed the ones they wish for us to debate.
Until the news refocuses on a mission of informing the public, the media are just pawns in scandal-driven political play.
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The news has always been like this. Back in the 1960s thru the 1970s……I listened to my Dad say what you just said in your article…..about the CBS, NBC, ABC news.
What has changed is outlets on the internet [yours for one] gives us a different and better perspective…at the least. And at most…..a whole different set of news stories that will never hit the networks or legacy newspapers.
This all started with talk radio in the 1990s late 1980s. Rush, et al…….and then Drudge online……and now you and many others.
So, thank you.
This is the “new” Watergate, and the demonrats are running with it…when that fails it will be an assassination again. Just how the demonrats work.
Isn’t it wonderful that the writer is suddenly concerned with the media doing its job? So satisfying. ?
So funny. You seem so terribly decided about the wonderful Trump administration. And you have listed so many of the previous administration’s faults, some of which are very true.
However, your brush might also tar your heavenly, sinless and godly leader Trump, with the faults of a treasure trove of a LIBRARY of TOP SECRET documents in his GUEST BATHROOM! Where anyone could idly read about, I don’t know, nuclear secrets, while waiting for a movement on the loo. Boxes and boxes of documents, I might add. Perhaps you’ve seen the pictures.
You are not a doctor, an epidemiologist, but you spout about vaccines as if you were. Measles was eliminated in North America until people like you and Robert Kennedy started killing children by telling parents they didn’t need to have their children vaccinated. Yes, that’s right. It’s on you. YOU killed them. YOU are responsible. You are not a medical person, but you seem to think you are. And just because you have journalistic awards doesn’t make you a doctor.
I don’t live in your country, thank God. I just watch as the country that USED to be the land of the FREE has now become the land of oppression, persecution and fear. People are snatched off the streets, disappeared without question. MY people, Canadian citizens, are jailed in detention centers like common criminals for no reason at all. Scientists, internationally respected, are DISRESPECTED by common border officials.
And you write your drivel as if you are superior. White, American and safe. You think. I know your precious president doesn’t like black people, nor any other race. He also has no time for people with religions other than Christianity, though he is not a Christian himself. His proposal, if you might call it that, is a tax cut for the fantastically wealthy at the expense of the people in the street. Like you. Yes, you.
You think he gives a damn about you? The only thing he cares about is money. And his billionaire friends. Look at the tax brackets he wants for the rich and look at why they need to cut social security, Medicaid, veterans, USAID, and a million other things that helped the person in the street.
Are you BLIND? You’re supposed to be a JOURNALIST!
If you are such a clever person, a clever journalist, you would have seen this long ago. Instead, you are an easily led sycophant without a brain – a bimbo. You could have used your skills to help people. Instead, you write trashy propaganda for a president that will happily walk all over you when he has extracted every bit of use he can get out of you. You know, when asked about the effect tariffs on cars would have on Americans, his answer was: “I couldn’t care less.”
Think about that. Because he’s actually talking about you.
Sharyl, it just doesn’t make sense. If Mike Waltz doesn’t have Goldman in his contacts, then how did he get on the chat? Someone had to have added him – who? that’s the real story. Whoever did it should be prosecuted, IMO.
Believe it or not, when the signal story broke I wondered how SA would cover it, if she covered it at all. I guess it took her a few days to figure out how to spin it to downplay the guilt of those in the Trump Administration. And this is what we get – a small snippet of the real story and a whole bunch of whataboutism.
But this story does have some of the hallmarks of an SA piece at least when it comes to defending Trump and his cronies – if you can’t deflect or defend the real behavior, change the subject by trying to create some false equivalency to mute the outrage. Notice that nowhere in this story are the many attempts to place blame somewhere other than where it really belongs, at the feet of Mike Waltz. And there’s no mention of the out-and-out lies told by those testifying in front of Congress. And she never mentions the many attempts to smear Jeffrey Goldberg (I thought fighting smearing was her forte. And what exactly do Goldberg’s politics have to do with anything? He’s merely a fact witness.). Notice that every “shocking” story of security lapses involves Democrats. Apparently Republicans have never done anything like that.
I guess there is one Republican mentioned, Mike Pence. Of course, it’s OK to throw him under the bus because he is persona non grata in Trumpworld these days. She describes how Pence and Biden were in possession of classified docs that were “accessible to who knows how many people”. But somehow she never mentions Trump storing classified docs in one of the bathrooms at Mar-a-Lago.
Then we read that the “Biden folks had supposedly cooperated with the investigation”. From everything that I read, there was no “supposedly” about it. Biden and Pence both turned themselves in and allowed the FBI to conduct an unobstructed search for any other documents that they might have. Trump turned a few documents in, his lawyers signed a statement attesting that he didn’t have any more, and he had Mar-a-Lago employees move the boxes of classified documents in an attempt to hide them from the FBI. No honest person could claim these were the same situations.
And here is the clear distinction between the Trump and Biden documents cases (something you won’t read about here). Trump was not charged with simply having classified documents in his possession. He was charged with failing to turn them over. If you read the actual indictment, the documents listed therein are all ones that the FBI found in their raid (you know, after Trump signed a document saying he didn’t have any more) not ones that he had turned over previously. So Trump, Biden, and Pence were all treated the same initially. It was only because Trump refused to cooperate that he got into further trouble.
And, of course, claiming that the Signal scandal is “quite tame” in comparison to the Comey leaks is nonsense. Comey was never charged with leaking classified information (look it up). And I wonder in what way texting plans of an imminent attack involving the U.S. military using an unapproved network could in any way be considered “quite tame” when compared to almost anything.
Just look at the two choices in SA’s poll. The Signal “situation” was either: (a) an insider setting up Trump, or (b) an honest mistake. Clearly, it’s not (a) as even Mike Waltz has admitted that he was responsible. And (b) sure sounds pretty bland for such an immense screw up. How about a third choice – that it shows those in charge of our nation’s security are in way over their heads?
“the newest accusations are sparking outrage on both sides” – that’s news to me. What outrage has there been from the Republicans (mild criticism doesn’t count)?
“I’m not suggesting the answer lies in all such scandals receiving similar play in the news media.” – Fair enough – but then SA spends the next pages complaining about how some scandals received more “play” than others. Seems pretty inconsistent.
“Trump aides allegedly used the app for internal talks“ – Why use the word “allegedly”? It’s beyond doubt that they did. That’s how Goldberg got on the chat.
“possibly touching sensitive topics – Possibly? Give me more examples of a topic that could possibly be more sensitive than attack plans.
“the Trump administration insists nothing was classified” – This may technically be correct, but an honest reporter would admit that zero people believe this.
“The news has allowed itself to be turned into a megaphone for political and special interests and their backers to push propaganda and gossip” – Pretty good description of this newsletter with its unceasing bashing of Democrats, its unceasing praise of Trump (or perhaps it’s more accurate to say its complete failure to write anything negative about Trump), and its unceasing hawking of conspiracy theories from stolen elections to deliberate and wide-spread vaccine harm.
Brilliant as usual. Sharyl you ALWAYS bring the receipts.