The Signal Flap and a Propaganda-Driven Media

What's happened to The News?

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.

Read Sharyl Attkisson’s bestseller “Follow the $cience: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails.”