"Signalgate is an embarrassing exercise in ‘Mother, may I?’ journalism, revealing how the government’s convoluted system of secrecy has confused the press about what it can or should publish. The real victim here is the public.
No one involved in the Signal text affair comes out looking good. Not Trump’s top national security officials discussing an imminent U.S. military strike on a public app, outside of the secure channels that taxpayers shelled out billions to set up.
Not the rest of the government (including Congress) that can’t seem to explain or even understand the basic rules of the secrecy regime it put in place and is supposed to oversee.
Not Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who explicitly waited for President Trump’s permission to report on the texts, even though the attack on the Houthis had already taken place over a week prior.
And not the news media overall that showered Goldberg with praise for deferring to the government while propagating the falsehood that publishing what the government deems “classified” is illegal.
This is how our democracy dies: in deference.
Goldberg has said he decided not to publish the actual text messages he received until Trump and his flunkies claimed they weren’t “classified.” In basing his decision on the government’s stamp of approval rather than on clear public interest, Goldberg smells more like a bureaucrat than a journalist."
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/signalgates-classified-texts-stump