Have you ever been sent a text accidentally I have and sometimes I send texts by mistake to the wrong person. It usually happens where I respond to someone and it goes to the person who most recently texted me. It’s an error that can easily be made in our everyday dealings with current technology. Sometimes it’s something as simple as “I am on my way over to pick you up,” and sometimes it can be a message you meant specifically for someone that you may or may not have intended for anyone else to read. When I get a text not meant to be sent to me, I right way respond with, “Hi, you must have mentioned to send this to someone else, or name the person if I know the person intended to receive it. It can make the way you think about responding via text. If you never say anything mean or derogatory in a text, then you won’t ever have anything to worry about. Right?
These were actually some of the thoughts that came to mind when I heard about the texting debacle at the White House, that made news early this week when Atlantic reporter, Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally sent a text back in mid-March as part of a texting chain with high ranking Trump cabinet officials leading up to a military strike on March 15. The first thing I thought of was, Why didn’t Goldberg just respond with, “I think this was meant for someone else.” Or, having the phone numbers, he also could have picked up the phone, called one of the numbers on the texting chain and said something like, “Hey, this is Jeff Goldberg from The Atlantic, I don’t think I was intended to receive this information.” End of it.
Instead, Goldberg sat on the information and then called the White House to inform him of the mishap and that he was going to release his story on the events, the day members of The White House National Security Department were to testify on Capitol Hill. An embarrassing situation for The White House, for a member of the press to be on such a high priority briefing, absolutely and most definitely someone messed up. National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz took responsibility for the error, although he says that he has no idea how such an mistake could have happened. Most likely, a low ranking staff member put the chain together. No one was killed, the military strike was a success and hit numerous Iran backed, Houthi terrorists.
Why did Goldberg sit on the information rather than share it immediately? Was he looking for his “GOTCH YA!” Moment, thinking that this would be his ‘Watergate’, making a name for himself as a journalist, like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein back in the seventies when Watergate took President Richard Nixon down? Others got on board slinging insults toward the cabinet members and the White House. The President addressed the situation appropriately, stating that mistakes had been made, the strike was a success, no American service members were hurt or injured, the administration was making good on their promises to take on the terrorists around the world, Mike Waltz had taken responsibility and that lessons would be learned. Really, no more needed to be said. No cover up, full transparency. No need to accuse media of going after them, or make comparisons to the former administration and the mishandling of actual Classified Information. DONE! Pass the mashed potatoes please.
On Thursday afternoon,(yesterday) I heard the first media personality express the same thought I initially had, “Why did the journalist feel that it was his responsibility to make himself the story, rather than bow out of the texting chain, with either the message back to someone on the texting chain or picking up the phone?”, it was Will Cain of The Will Cain Show on Fox News.
Sometimes, it’s NOT about us. There are times in life when it’s best not to get in the fray. Sometimes, it’s best to hold our tongues and just remain quiet, or quietly do the right thing, without much fan fair. There are times in life when big measures need to be taken and big actions. These acts can change history, save lives and make headlines. We think of big names studied in history class…And then, there are those who quietly go about their lives just keeping a low profile and have the wisdom to guide them to do the right thing, when to speak up and when take quiet action. What would you do?
