Rex Tillerson's Asian reminder of why transparency is crucial

Treating the press as the enemy is a mistake for many reasons, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just learned one of them.

South Korean officials, according to Tillerson, concocted a story that made Tillerson look bad, and the world believed it and repeated it for a whole day. This is because there was almost no American press traveling with the secretary of state; just one reporter who was focused on doing a long-form story rather than supplying a constant stream of breaking news.

Here's what happened.

The standard practice for a high-level official visiting a foreign country on official business is to bring along the American press. The president has traditionally brought White House reporters, the commerce secretary has brought that department's press corps, and the secretary of state normally brings the State Department press.

Reporters don't sit in on sensitive diplomatic meetings, but they follow the secretary around, have frequent chances to ask questions of officials, and report all the details.