Earlier this week, The Atlantic shared a report that editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg had been inadvertently added to a group chat on the Signal messaging app with several high-ranking members of the national security team, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, among others. The topic has been one of the hottest subjects in news/talk radio and news television shows since its revelation.
Thus far, the Trump administration has downplayed the situation, saying that no one involved in the situation is at risk of losing their position. On Wednesday morning, The Atlantic released the Signal messages from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other government officials after many had argued that no “war plans” were shared in the unencrypted group message.
The released messages purport to show the exact opposite, with exact times and expected equipment of planned strikes against a terrorist group in Yemen. Earlier in the week, Secretary Hegseth bluntly stated “Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” when asked about the situation.
Barrett Media spoke with several conservative news/talk radio hosts and news radio anchors to ask one question: If you were accidentally included on a private group chat (assume this was Biden’s camp making the mistake) that exposed you to sensitive information from the White House, how would you have handled the situation?
“I’d let them know and remove myself,” Erick Erickson, host of the nationally syndicated Erick Erickson Show, said. “National security is more important than a scoop.”
Another nationally syndicated host, Joe Pagliarulo, host of The Joe Pags Show, had a different thought process.
“I honestly don’t know how I would react,” said Pagliarulo. “We’re still figuring out what was on the chat. What I do know is, I have been texted by accident before and I have said ‘Was that meant for me?’ I think most of us have faced that. But, included in a government group chat? That hasn’t happened. I’d like to think I would let them know I was in there.”
Salem Radio Network morning host Chris Stigall was blunt in his answer to the hypothetical question.
“I’ll be 100% honest: I would wait and read tons of communication to make certain what I was learning was not a harm to the country,” said Stigall. “Because I genuinely believe many inside the previous administration meant harm to our national security. At a minimum, they willfully compromised it.
“The difference in what Goldberg was included on versus what a Biden chat might include is the difference between harming our country versus defending our country. For instance, I bet I’d find evidence of destructive behavior related to the border, or Iran to name a couple of examples in a private Biden chat. In the Goldberg instance, Waltz and the rest of the team were talking about taking out the Houthis – defending our military men and women, our allies, and our shared navigable waterways. And they did so with devastating success.
Stigall admitted that the situation was a mistake and one that should be reported on. But he believes, in this hypothetical situation, the content of the potential conversation he was accidentally included in would have included more damaging messages than what was seen in the real-life instance.
“Yes, I’m a partisan. So is Goldberg. I don’t mind that he reported the mistake. And it was a mistake. I would also report on the mistake,” he shared. “But we didn’t learn anything from the Waltz/Goldberg chat except confirmation Trump’s team is doing what they were elected to do.
“I genuinely believe if I were included in a private conversation involving Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary — for example — I can almost guarantee I’d be privy to conversations about keeping our border open, encouraging illegal immigration, etc. That’s something the American people need to know,” argued Stigall. “Trump’s team is America first. Biden’s team was something else entirely and it was destructive to our country. That’s not just my opinion, the last election backs me up.”
Tony Katz, morning host at 93 WIBC in Indianapolis in addition to his nationally syndicated show Tony Katz Today, said his response came from one not out of obligation to his job but just as a human.
“I more than likely would have written ‘I don’t think I’m supposed to be a part of this conversation,'” said Katz. “But I think like a person and not a ‘journalist.'”
Barrett Media also reached out to WTOP afternoon news anchor Shawn Anderson, who is based in Washington D.C., how he would handle the situation as a non-partisan media member. He, potentially, could be one of the most likely radio journalists to find themselves in this situation. In his response to the question, he said the situation was handled appropriately by The Atlantic and its editor-in-chief.
“It depends what you mean by ‘sensitive’ information,” Anderson qualified. “But if you’re talking about a similar scenario where national security and the lives of American troops and/or intelligence assets are on the line, Jeffrey Goldberg just showed us the playbook on how to handle it. He didn’t report in real time he even had that information. He waited an appropriate amount of time after that particular mission was completed, and made sure lives weren’t at risk before he revealed just the outlines of what was said in the text chain. And he only revealed the operational details after the Trump Administration continued to insist the information was not classified.
“Despite the extraordinary White House pushback, Goldberg only released the tick-tock to force us to keep our eye on the real story – why are top Security principals discussing crucial details of a military mission on an app that could be compromised? And how did Goldberg get included in the text chain in the first place?”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
