Jeffrey Goldberg, who’s the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, says that more reporting may be on the way covering issues like the scandalous comments that President Donald Trump has allegedly made about veterans. Goldberg’s publication recently released a story that alleged that Trump had called American service members who were killed in action “losers” and “suckers.” The same story alleged that Trump had been enraged after flags were lowered to half-staff at federal buildings after the death of John McCain — a detail confirmed by former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor. Trump has flipped out over the report, but Goldberg and The Atlantic stand by it.
On Sunday, Goldberg said the following on CNN:
‘I would fully expect more reporting to come out about this and more confirmation and new pieces of information in the coming days and weeks. We have a responsibility and we’re going to do it regardless of what he says.’
The Atlantic has faced steep criticism in part over their reliance on anonymous sources for the story about Trump’s comments. It’s worth noting — it’s not as though these sources are anonymous to the people responsible for the story itself. The journalists behind the story are simply keeping the sources’ identities hidden in part thanks to the steep culture of intimidation and retaliation that Trump himself has cultivated. Like clockwork, when people who’ve served in his administration have come out against him, Trump has publicly melted down and thrown them under the metaphorical bus.
Goldberg noted:
‘We all have to use anonymous sources, especially in a climate where the president of the United States tries to actively intimidate. These are not people who are anonymous to me.’
Trump has in the past even committed what some observers have characterized as witness intimidation. For instance, shortly after he fired James Comey from his post as FBI Director, Trump belligerently tweeted that Comey “better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.” There were no tapes — Trump admitted that himself. Investigative reporter Carl Bernstein noted on the same CNN show as Goldberg that with Trump in office, “reporting is almost uniformly based on anonymous sourcing in part because that’s the only way we can get to the truth.”
