US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reverted to his past talking points about “fake news” Wednesday while touting the US military’s accomplishments.
Hegseth suggested that the press prominently covers service member casualties to “make the president look bad,” an incendiary claim that injected partisan politics into a wartime Pentagon press conference.
Hegseth said the “the fake news misses” that “we’ve taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground.”
In fact, news outlets have meticulously covered the air campaign, but Hegseth has a long history of using the media as a foil, even when he was a member of the media himself, hosting shows on Fox News.
Hegseth then alluded to the Iranian drone strike in Kuwait that killed six service members. “When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front page news,” he said. “I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step.”
Hegseth credentialed a right-wing “press corps” last fall after traditional news outlets rejected new press pass rules that media lawyers said criminalized routine reporting.
Most of the questions at Wednesday’s briefing came from right-wing outlets like The Daily Wire and LindellTV that have scarce experience covering the military.-CNN