A recent story in the US Guardian is headlined “The FBI is Trumpland.”
This is a quote from an unidentified FBI agent.
Nevertheless, even before reading the story, but inescapably after reading it, the use of this as a lead headline – all that some people read – is in my view clearly inappropriate.
The thrust of the article is that an anti-Clinton culture is prevalent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But even that description is journalisticly slanted, since one or many people may dislike and distrust Hillary Clinton, not because they prefer a different political party or presidential candidate, but because they are want the truth to be told and want corruption to be properly dealt with.
“ …other sources dispute the depth of support for Trump within the bureau, though they uniformly stated that Clinton is viewed highly unfavorably.
‘There are lots of people who don’t think Trump is qualified, but also believe Clinton is corrupt. What you hear a lot is that it’s a bad choice, between an incompetent and a corrupt politician,’ said a former FBI official.”
In other words, the “culture” of the agency reflects that of the country as whole. What a surprise!
According to the Guardian, many in the agency deeply resent the Justice Department’s perceived whitewash of Clinton’s treatment of government-related communications. And as a result some in the agency have leaked information that would lead to further investigation of her related to those matters.
Belonging to any spy-oriented organization is never what my life was going to be about, but had it been, I would now be joining the leakers.
William Smithers
Santa Barbara