On Thursday, The Atlantic ran a truly damning piece accusing President Trump of saying that a cemetery of marines who died at the Battle of Belleau Wood, one of the most important battles of World War I and in the history of the Marine Corps, is "filled with losers" and that they were "suckers" for getting killed. However, there was a problem. Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg's article was entirely based on "four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day," whatever that means. On Friday, Goldberg was on CNN's New Day to defend himself.
Fill-in co-host Jim Sciutto began by informing viewers that CNN could not independently verify Goldberg's article and asked Goldberg to respond to White House denials. Fellow co-host Alisyn Camerota actually challenged Goldberg even further.
Camerota cited John Bolton, "who was there" and his "tell-all book which was no love letter to President Trump" "had a very different version." Reading directly from Bolton' book:
The weather was bad. Marine One's crew was saying that bad visibility could make it imprudent to chopper to the cemetery. The ceiling was not too low for Marines to fly in combat, but flying POTUS was obviously something very different. If a motorcade was necessary it would take between 90 and 120 minutes each way along roads that were not freeways posing an unacceptable risk that we could not get the president out of France quickly enough in the case of an emergency
When asked to respond, Goldberg said such evidence is irrelevant because it does not change the insults.
Sciutto then got to the heart of the matter:
Let me ask you this. Because these are remarkable accounts here of a Commander-in-Chief stating the most disrespectful things you can imagine about fallen service members, amputees ... I'm curious why these people didn't want to go on the record. We're two months from the election and these are horrible insults to service members. Did they explain their thinking as to why they wouldn’t put their names to these accounts?
Sciutto is right, they are among "the most disrespectful things you can imagine," which is why, without names, it looks like a combination of confirmation bias (Goldberg, in his article, cited Trump's feuds with veterans and their families where he has gone too far) and political gossip.
So, it was disappointing, not to mention ridiculous, journalistic malpractice when Goldberg cited mean tweets as a reason why he relied on anonymous sources: "When they don't want to go [on the record]-- and we have both experienced why people don't want to go--- they don't want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest."
Despite Goldberg claiming to have "dotted I’s and crossed T’s," some accusations are so serious, in order to run them they need more than Twitter-fearing anonymous sources commenting on an event from 2018.
This segment was sponsored by Carvana.
Here is a transcript of the September 4 show:
CNN
New Day
8:49 AM ET
ALISYN CAMEROTA: So your reporting says “in a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said ‘why should I go to that cemetery, it's filled with losers.’” In a sperate conversation on the same trip “Trump referred to the more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed. … Trump, on that same trip, asked aides who were the good guys in this war? He said he didn't understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.” And, Jeffrey, I mean, obviously that's -- you know, pretty jaw dropping stuff but I want to challenge your version of events or your reported version of the events because John Bolton in his tell-all book which was no love letter to President Trump had a very different version. So let me read to you how he, who was there, said that day unfolded. He said “the weather was bad. Marine one's crew was saying that bad visibility could make it imprudent to chopper to the cemetery. The ceiling was not too low for Marines to fly in combat, but flying POTUS was obviously something very different. If a motorcade was necessary it would take between 90 and 120 minutes each way along roads that were not freeways posing an unacceptable risk that we could not get the president out of France quickly enough in the case of an emergency.” What's your response?
…JIM SCIUTTO: Point of order, but let me ask you this. Because these are remarkable accounts here of a commander-in-chief stating the most disrespectful things you can imagine about fallen service members, amputees. The president, you know, your story, he did not want amputees in the military parade because people don't want to see them. I'm curious why these people didn't want to go on the record. We're two months from the election and these are horrible insults to service members. Did they explain their thinking as to why they wouldn’t put their names to these accounts?
JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Well, like, you know, like you, when you're faced with the same situation, you ask for people to go on the record.
SCIUTTO: Sure.
GOLDBERG: Then ultimately you have to make -- when they don't want to go and we have both experienced why people don't want to go, they don't want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest. And we push hard and that's why you have to sort of do this reporting with even more belt and suspenders approach. You know, dotted I’s and crossed T’s and find multiple sources for it. Each time this is a judgment call, right? Did the public's interest in needing this information outweigh the ambiguities or the difficulties of anonymous sourcing and in this case, I decided that I felt I knew this information well enough from high enough sources and multiple sources that I thought we should put it out. I do hope obviously and I try as you do to get various people to say things on the record. And I hope that there's an effort -- you know, I hope there's an effort on the part of reporters and I'll be continuing to make that effort to move this material directly on to the record.
