It wasn't long after President-elect Donald Trump had nominated Pete Hegseth to be his Defense Secretary that the media tried pulling a Brett Kavanaugh on him, pulling up reports of an alleged sexual assault back in 2017. CBS News was all over it:
A married woman chose to go up to Hegseth's hotel room while her husband and children were asleep in the same hotel. A few days later she decided that she was raped. Doesn't sound even remotely credible to me. https://t.co/JvqAjv4qgf
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 22, 2024
Rolling Stone, which was sued by a fraternity it had accused of gang rape in a story that was completely fabricated, also got in on the action, and MSNBC's Jen Psaki thought it was a good idea to highlight Rolling Stone's report on her show:
I am curious how the police concluded Hegseth committed the assault while at the same concluded after investigations there was no reason to charge him with assault. https://t.co/KVixGbKbu2
— Brad Slager: CNN+ Lifetime Subscriber (@MartiniShark) November 25, 2024
That scandal didn't stick, so they decided to suggest from his tattoos that Hegseth was a white supremacist. As we reported Monday, Sen. Dick Blumenthal is now trying to paint Hegseth as a drunk. Oh, and the New York Times pulled up an email from Hegseth's mother from 2018 suggesting he mistreated women. The swamp really does not want him confirmed.
CNN senior media reporter Brian Stelter has been retired to continue his beat of watching Fox News for a living. He's concerned that Fox News viewers just aren't getting the vital information about these scandals.
What's a media outlet supposed to do when its longtime host is picked to run the Pentagon, and then a series of eyebrow-raising news stories trigger doubts about his appointment? If you're Fox News, evidently, you just pretend the stories don't exist >>>
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 3, 2024
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"Eyebrow-raising" — but unproven or debunked — news stories. What's a media outlet supposed to do?
Fox, which employed Pete Hegseth for a decade, has not covered the past week's controversies involving Hegseth at all, according to SnapStream and TVEyes database searches. Zero mentions of the NYT story. Zero mentions of The New Yorker story. https://t.co/o0ME6s8aoU
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 3, 2024
On Monday's edition of "Special Report," Chad Pergram said Hegseth's confirmation "could be a problem" because "he faces problems about his personal conduct." What problems? Pergram didn't say. Neither has anyone else on Fox.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 3, 2024
Imagine, Fox News not throwing one of its own under the bus.
The omission is potentially significant because Fox is the top TV outlet for Republicans, and Hegseth's confirmation hinges on Republican senators. Some of those senators sound incurious — just like Fox. https://t.co/nDkfFuvtEK
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 3, 2024
Bottom line: Fox viewers are in the dark about the Hegseth allegations. Yesterday one Fox show aired a clip of @NikolenDC asking "were you ever drunk while traveling on the job?" Hegseth said "I'm not going to dignify that." Fox didn't bother to explain why she was asking 🤷♂️
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 3, 2024
Someone’s ex-wife leaking an email his mother sent him 7 years ago during a custody trial is not “news,” Brian. Your absolute zero standards don’t have to be adopted by everyone else. Compare the ratings - your “standards” have been rejected.
— PJ Paul (@RealPJPaul) December 3, 2024
Is this your way of ignoring the biggest news of the year? Joe “No-one-is-above-the-law” Biden pardons his son and you deflect to a non-story about a nominee for the next administration. This is the type of pseudo-journalism that had CNN ratings at historic lows. pic.twitter.com/r65iJaUEX2
— Ever Earnest Mann (@ever_e_mann) December 3, 2024
You spent your career ignoring massive scandals. We don't care about Hegseth's alleged issues. We want him confirmed and we want you destroyed.
— Red Alert Florida (@RedAlertFlorida) December 3, 2024
Which of these allegations have been substantiated? If the standard is no one can can serve that has had an unsubstantiated allegation made against them then we won’t have any government officials. While I may like smaller government this doesn’t seem fair or reasonable.
— Mark Wimberly (@mwimber1980) December 3, 2024
There is no scandal. Pete is a great choice.
— Ginny (@ginkates) December 3, 2024
Tater, you really should reflect on the actual scandals of the current administration. I dare yah.
Yeah, thank God CNN is there to save us
— Peter Jay (@PeterJohn501) December 3, 2024
CNN and the New York Times and CBS News and The New Yorker, to name a few.
You mean like the rest of the media did with Hunter’s laptop?
— Rich Newton (@Rich_Newton_) December 3, 2024
Stelter dismissed that "story" as Russian disinformation.
Your network covered up the laptop story, I'd sit this one out.
— Not Important (@Not_Important47) December 3, 2024
Instead, you think "news" organizations should run with unsubstantiated allegations in a smear campaign only against Republicans? Check the CNN ratings to confirm that nobody believes you.
— Ron (@pursuit0226) December 3, 2024
Brian, you found hard hitting “eyebrow raising” stories?!
— Karen (@Karen10304) December 3, 2024
What a “journalist” you are!
Shades of Kavanaugh much?!
They either haven't found a copy of Hegseth's high school yearbook or did and didn't find anything to suggest he held gang-rape parties.
CNN viewers have no clue why Biden just went back 11 years on a pardon.
— Jim Muessig (@JimMuessig) December 3, 2024
Someone brought up the allegation that first gentleman Doug Emhoff slapped his ex-girlfriend and impregnated the nanny, but we checked Stelter's timeline and didn't find any mention of those.
Stelter sounds jealous that a Fox News host might get a gig in the Trump administration when he was hoping to get a gig in the Harris administration.
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