By Conover Kennard – Sep 7, 2020
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic that published the bombshell report on Donald Trump disparaging military members, told CNN’s Brian Stelter on “Reliable Sources” Sunday that his magazine’s story about the president calling U.S. troops who died in battle “losers” and “suckers,” was just the tip of the iceberg. Trump has been freaking out over the story as it was published less than sixty days before the election in November. However, parts of the story were confirmed by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, and 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,” Goldberg said. “We have a responsibility, and we’re going to do it regardless of what he says.”
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The report received some backlash for using anonymous sources; however, Trump has used anonymous sources multiple times. And this president tends to retaliate and lash out at named sources.
“We all have to use anonymous sources, especially in a climate where the president of the United States tries to actively intimidate,” Goldberg said. “These are not people who are anonymous to me.”
Carl Bernstein, the investigative reporter known for breaking the Watergate story that took down former President Richard Nixon, told Stelter on Reliable Sources Sunday that anonymous sourcing is often a crucial tool for reporters. And most of us remember “Deep Throat,” the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information in 1972 to Bob Woodward, who then shared it with Carl Bernstein.
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“Almost all 200 of our stories about Watergate were based on anonymous sourcing,” Bernstein said, adding that during the Trump era, “reporting is almost uniformly based on anonymous sourcing in part because that’s the only way we can get to the truth.”
Trump launched an attack on Steve Jobs’ widow early Sunday morning to discredit the story and basically asked his supporters to harass Laurene Powell Jobs, who donated to Democratic nominee Joe Biden and whose philanthropy organization Emerson Collective owns the magazine.
Goldberg fired back at Trump, saying that the magazine will continue to report on his administration. “We’re not going to be intimidated by the President of the United States. We’re going to do our jobs,” Goldberg said.
