Several establishment media outlets coordinated the release of document disclosures in a giant and secret, now-defunct online chat group, hidden from the public, a series of recent reports reveals. The group shut down abruptly on Tuesday afternoon after a series of unanswered inquiries from Breitbart News were sent to known members throughout the establishment media, including at least two New York Times reporters, a senior editor at the Atlantic, an NBC News reporter, and several others.

The online chat, through an application called Slack that facilitates group chats and is used by many different newsrooms and other companies nationwide, helped establishment media outlets coordinate the release of their stories on documents provided to them by so-called Facebook "whistleblower" Frances Haugen. Slack is generally used internally for easier communication in remote companies, but special features do allow Slack users to set up groups with members from a selection of different companies. That appears to be what happened here, as representatives from each of the above named companies and others all joined a specially created Slack group to coordinate their stories for maximum impact.