More from the OpEd ...
... There were four pieces I wanted to highlight, both good and bad:
There was, for instance, a breathless Washington Post piece that seemed to imply some level of scandal or "laxness" in the security based on how the dinner wasn't designated a "National Security Special Event," but then (a) failed to mention whether that was a change from any prior WHCA dinner and (b) in its own subsequent reporting explained how the dinner failed to meet the standard for an NSSE, thereby undercutting the whole premise of the "scandal."
At the other end of the thoughtful-and-informed spectrum, one piece worth reading that brings some important nuance was this MS NOW one by Carol Leonnig, just about the only journalist who has written meaningfully about the long-term challenges of the Secret Service. She points out how the Secret Service has narrowly averted tragedy three times in two years when faced with "a low-tech lone wolf."
It's also astounding -- and worrisome -- how quickly and widespread how what one might call the "median online perspective" has coalesced around the incident being staged or a false-flag operation, citing a mix of evidence. It surely wasn't, but it's a troubling sign of how corrupted the public backdrop of trust is and how compromised our information environments are these days. As one person joked yesterday, the strongest evidence it wasn't staged was that no one tried to insider-trade on Kalshi or Polymarket.)
Lastly, I want to highlight Brian Stelter's very smart -- and heartfelt -- essay about how America's elite merely got a taste Saturday night of what it's like to now be a schoolchild in the US: "We need to say out loud that it was actually all too ordinary. In America this is all too common -- a shots-fired moment, a chaotic lockdown, a spasm of violence interrupting a peaceful gathering. Thousands of media and political elites have now gone through what countless millions of other Americans have experienced in their schools, offices, malls and churches. And on most of those occasions, there were no Secret Service agents." I did an entire podcast season about how America lost its mind and sense when it comes to guns, and it's sad that one time after another, we miss the opportunities to change our country's trajectory on gun violence. ...
[emphasis mine]
