QUICK HIT: A Reporter's Notebook On This Week's Bombshell National Security Scoop
SmartHERNews
Jenna Lee
5 • 615 Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A reporter's notebook on the latest story from The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, who describes finding himself on a text string belonging to some of America's most powerful leaders as they discuss the lead-up to a military campaign targeting terrorists in Yemen. We discuss not only what Goldberg reported but HOW he reported it. Jenna shares her approach to the story and what to watch for next - Plus, something you won't see anywhere else: a reporter's guidebook from World War II that belonged to Jenna's grandfather who worked a correspondent, embedded with Allied forces. Does this guidance still hold true? What do you think?
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Sensitive Correspondence
01:15 The Atlantic's Report on War Plans
03:57 The Role of Jeffrey Goldberg
06:51 National Security Implications
10:03 Ethics in Journalism
14:59 Historical Context of Reporting
19:10 Questions of Ethics and Security
22:03 Public Trust in Journalism and Leadership
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
If you’d like to help support SmartHER News’ mission of a free, independent, nonpartisan press – here’s how you can become a SCOOP insider: https://www.scoop.smarthernews.com/get-the-inside-scoop/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smarthernews/
Website: https://smarthernews.com/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/smarthernews
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/smarthernews/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A reporter finds himself on a text string of highly sensitive correspondence between some of our |
| 0:04.3 | nation's top leaders. What should we know about his report and what should we consider about |
| 0:10.2 | how he reported it? It's the topic we're going to tackle today. I'm Jenna and this is Smarter News. |
| 0:27.6 | So today we're going to do something a little bit different. I want to give you a reporter's notebook. This is a more personal perspective. We call it a reporter's notebook when we're doing |
| 0:32.2 | stories like this because it's more casual. It's like I'm reading off my notes of a story, just sort of my observations |
| 0:39.1 | and things I'm thinking about as a journalist instead of thinking about it simply as a reporter. |
| 0:43.7 | On Monday, we received a really big headline from The Atlantic. The Atlantic is a magazine |
| 0:49.4 | publication that's been around for a long time, has a big reputation for a lot of major news stories. |
| 0:56.6 | And it read this. This is the title of the article, the Trump administration accidentally |
| 1:01.3 | texted me its war plans. Okay. So again, that's the headline. The author is a man by the |
| 1:08.3 | name of Jeffrey Goldberg. He's the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic. |
| 1:12.8 | He's worked for this magazine, this media platform for some time. |
| 1:17.7 | And so when I first saw this without even reading the story, a few things just went through |
| 1:21.9 | my mind. |
| 1:22.5 | You know, what in the world is Jeffrey Goldberg actually talking about? |
| 1:25.9 | What's in that text thread that he's talking about? And what did he actually share? What are the facts is Jeffrey Goldberg actually talking about? What's in that text thread that he's |
| 1:27.5 | talking about? And what did he actually share? What are the facts or the evidence that are |
| 1:32.6 | included in this story? The Atlantic has a reputation of sharing a more progressive perspective, |
| 1:39.1 | but it invests in reporting projects that many outlets do not these days, which have led to some really incredible |
| 1:45.4 | stories. In fact, I just read one this weekend. In their recent edition, there's this big, |
| 1:50.0 | deep dive on the Murdoch family empire. So this is Rupert Murdoch and his sons. And this |
| 1:56.3 | reporter spent months and months and months on this story. And as I flipped through the magazine, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jenna Lee, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jenna Lee and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.