As we told you earlier, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had a press conference during which he took on many Democrat and media narratives about the ongoing strikes in Iran which have included taking out dozens of regime leaders.
Brian Stelter said he was adding some context to what happened at the briefing in the latest attempt to portray the Trump administration as anti-press:
If you're wondering about who was at today's Pentagon press conference, here's some context >>>
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 2, 2026
The Pentagon has severely restricted access to info in the past year. Pete Hegseth credentialed a MAGA media "press corps" last fall after traditional news outlets rejected new press…
Here's the full post:
The Pentagon has severely restricted access to info in the past year. Pete Hegseth credentialed a MAGA media "press corps" last fall after traditional news outlets rejected new press pass rules that media lawyers said criminalized routine reporting.
The MAGA crew does relatively little reporting, so most coverage of the US military is now happening from outside the Pentagon's five walls.
Journalists from some traditional outlets were allowed to attend this morning's press conference with Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine. But Hegseth only answered Q's from his chosen outlets. I'm told he had a pre-selected list of questioners, and all the reporters were in assigned seats, so he knew who to call on.
When NBC's Courtney Kube tried to get a question in anyway and said, "President Trump put a four-week timeline on it — are you saying that is wrong?," Hegseth dismissed it as a "typical NBC sort of 'gotcha' type question."
That post caught the eye of Department of War press secretary Kingsley Wilson, who said "your post is false":
Brian, as usual for you, your post is false. @SecWar took questions from a variety of credentialed and non-credentialed press outlets, not "his chosen outlets." He also did not have a "pre-selected list of questioners." He is not Sleepy Joe Biden.
— Kingsley Wilson (@PressSecDOW) March 2, 2026
Hope that clears up any… https://t.co/jvPHiCDPLK
Maybe Stelter got a little too used to how the Biden White House operated and is projecting that onto Team Trump:
So "a pre-selected list of questioners" you say?https://t.co/m2HnMCuOEN pic.twitter.com/Aq7DFRB23I
— Jay Lampert (@MortChristenson) March 2, 2026
Recently Stelter called CNN a "balanced and fact-based network" so we're not surprised to find out that he wasn't being completely accurate in his description of the Hegseth presser.
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