"With each new communication medium comes new opportunities for politicians to get themselves into trouble. Congress demanded that letters from envoys to the French government be turned over in the XYZ Affair, thwarting President John Adams's desire to maintain a tenuous peace with France. The leak of the Zimmermann telegram helped push the U.S. into World War I-the opposite of what its German author intended."
"Yesterday, Paul Ingrassia-President Donald Trump's nominee to lead a whistleblower-protection office-withdrew from consideration following Politico's disclosure of texts to a group in which he used a racial slur and wrote, "I do have a Nazi streak in me from time to time." (Ingrassia's lawyer didn't outright deny the messages' authenticity, but suggested they could have been manipulated; he also said if they were real, they were "satirical.")"
New communication media have repeatedly produced opportunities for political missteps that reshape policy and careers. Historical incidents such as the XYZ Affair, the Zimmermann telegram, and Nixon's Oval Office tapes show how communications failures can alter foreign policy and end administrations. The current Age of the Group Chat has produced damaging messages among political figures, particularly within the MAGA sphere. A top nominee withdrew after racially offensive texts surfaced, with his lawyer claiming possible manipulation or satire. Other officials exchanged racist and violent jokes, and some prosecutors sent improper texts about grand-jury matters. A private Signal chat among senior officials escalated the seriousness of such breaches.
Read at The Atlantic
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