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It was the morning after a day when the American military operation against Iran did not go very well.
President Donald Trump reprimanded our Israeli allies for bombing a major Iranian gas facility. “NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL,” he wrote, as US and Israeli sources contradicted Trump’s insistence that he had not authorized the attack ahead of time.
Middle oil exports remained paralyzed as US allies such as Britain and France rejected Trump’s request to end Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, saying they did not want a military escalation.
As oil prices rose, with the country producing almost no new jobs in the past six months, the chairman of the Federal Reserve said the state of the economy was “uncertain.”
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth began a news conference yesterday morning by criticizing the media. (Wina McNamee/Getty Images)
That was the backdrop when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth began his morning news conference yesterday morning by criticizing…the media.
“The dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing, we know for now, to slow progress, raise every cost and question every step. Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail.” He was talking about Trump Derangement Syndrome.
But if you magically erase all the coverage of these recent events, it will not be true, it will shake the world economy and disrupt the financial markets.
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It was a strange note, as if the lack of good headlines was the root of the problem.
This is a common theme for Hegseth, who said media organizations turn developments like the deaths of American service members into front-page stories to make Trump look bad.
The former host of “Fox & Friends Weekend” sprinkled in other targets, including “ungrateful partners” in Europe, and Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
The coverage of President Donald Trump’s second term has been dire. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Now let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the Pentagon chief has a point.
The portrayal of this president, especially in the second phase, has been very negative, whether it is justified or not, and that can enter into the reporting and analysis of Iran.
But where in the world are the journalists who would like America to lose the war against the world’s leading terrorist country, which is the cause of the death of so many thousands of innocent people?
In fact, even those in the media who question the president’s decision to attack Iran right now – without clear evidence that the religious dictators are about to develop nuclear weapons – say the US is easily winning the war.
The world’s most powerful military has destroyed Iran’s defenses, no question about it. Tehran’s ability to use drones to strike back (with Russian help) against Americans in the surrounding Arab countries is very limited, but it can still cause death and damage.
And right now, Iran has succeeded in suffocating the oil supply in this crisis. This is all news, no matter how it is reported.
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Barbara Starr, former CNN Pentagon correspondent, had this to say about Hegseth on my “Media Buzzmeter” podcast:
“I think he would very much like to have a 100 percent glowing story about President Trump’s policies and efforts in this war. He doesn’t want any criticism… The job of the media in wartime is to cover all the stories. And I don’t think anything is really more important than the military, which he says is at the top of his list, and their welfare and their safety.”
The most important comment of Hegseth, who confirmed the request to increase the defense budget by 200 billion dollars, was that there will be no “nation-building mud” in Iran, “no democracy-building project.” That may be true, but it underscores the long shadow cast by the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, where a supposed cakewalk killed more than 4,000 Americans.
Hegseth said there would be no “nation-building mud” in Iran, nor any “democracy-building activity.” (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
When he urged the “patriotic” media yesterday to “thank” Trump for attacking Iran, Hegseth was broadcasting to the bosses. Online, the president accused “Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations of pushing “LIES” about the war, and said others should be “raised for TRASON charges.”
But yesterday Trump described the situation in Iran very well during a question-and-answer session with the Japanese prime minister, making no reference to media reports.
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He called the military “a trip,” acknowledging the rise in oil prices by saying: “I thought it was going to be worse – worse, actually.” The president said things are “ahead of schedule… It’s not bad and it will be over soon.”
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If so, no amount of negative cover will change public opinion. For now, though, journalists need to keep asking probing questions about the war and take the heat off the Trump team and its allies.
