Trump Regime Media At The MRC: Defending Pete Hegseth
The Media Research Center's aggressive advocacy for Donald Trump's candidate for secretary of defense included giving a pass to Hegseth's mother for doing a right-wing media tour to support her son.
It was inevitable that the Media Research Center would flip-flop from accusing non-right-wing media outlets of being “Regime Media” to becoming Regime Media itself after the election of Donald Trump as president. MRC quickly moved into that partisan and ideological role by aggressively defending Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense. Jorge Bonilla used a Nov. 13 post to parrot one the MRC’s favorite right-wing talking heads and argue for Hegseth:
It took about a week of self-containment after the election, but the media are back to their old, hectoring ways. The Regime Media have broken out in full contempt over President Elect Donald Trump’s selection of combat veteran Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.
Watch as CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings absolutely NUKES the panel:
[…]
The narrative emerging online and in the media is “Trump nominated the Fox and Friends host to head the DoD.” This is done in order to frame the pick as both a joke and a “Shattering of the Norms”, and to disqualify Hegseth in the court of public opinion.
Never mind that Hegseth has served for over 20 years, has multiple combat tours, and has been a tireless advocate for veterans.
The panel tried to come at Jennings with these credentialist arguments and Jennings absolutely unloaded, by reminding them of the recent and very high-profile failures of the credentialed DoD leadership.
Alex Christy served up more defense the same day:
Ever since President-elect Donald Trump made the surprising announcement that he intends to nominate veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense, the media has tried to portray him as a troublesome right-wing culture warrior. However, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell took things one step further on Wednesday as she spread straight up fake news about Hegseth.
With the context being that Hegseth has said he opposes putting women in combat roles, Mitchell told Sen. Chris Van Hollen, “Finally, the choice of Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth as the Defense Secretary. He has denounced diversity, equity, and inclusion. He disagrees with women in combat. I don’t know what he would say to Senator Duckworth, you know, and all the other women pilots, some of whom, like Senator Duckworth, you know, were grievously wounded in combat. But women have been a key part of piloting these fighter jets, and this goes back more than a decade. So, this would not be viewed a vote on until it would get to the floor if it gets out of committee.”
Here is what Hegseth actually said about female pilots: “Gimme a female pilot all day long. I have no issues with that.” It was also clear that Hegseth was talking about roles in the special forces “where strength is a differentiator.”
Hegseth got caught up in Nicholas Fondacaro’s daily hate-watch of “The View”:
President-elect Trump’s nomination of decorated Army combat veteran Pete Hegseth to be secretary of defense brought out the worst in the liberal media. Much of the pattern was on display during Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s The View as they actively diminished and discredited Hegseth’s 20 years of distinguished service in the Army by claiming he “does not know anything about the military,” and suggesting he’ll just get lost in the Pentagon.
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg, who screeched whenever someone mispronounced “Kamala,” kicked off the conversation by mocking Hegseth’s last name and that he was a co-host on Fox & Friends Weekend:
[…]
To prove her profound ignorance of Hegseth’s career, Goldberg – who had never served her county –proclaimed that he “clearly does not know anything about the military.”
“You know, I feel insulted. I’m a morning TV host and I’ve been here the longest. Where’s my ambassadorship to Italy, Donald?” bloviated Joy Behar, obviously oblivious to Hegseth’s distinguished service history, which includes two Bronze Stars, two Army Commendation Medals, and achieving the rank of major.
Pretend moderate Sara Haines mischaracterized his service history, falsely claiming he was in for “five or six years” and was only “mid-rank,” whatever that means.
Mark Finkelstein weirdly did a flip-flop on differing standards for men and women, which right-wingers are usually in favor of, in referencing “Hegseth’s opposition to women in combat and his call to reinstate gender-neutral fitness standards”:
But under the current, woke, standards, women are not be required to drag as much weight, or run as fast, as men. Consider how that could affect outcomes when women attempt to carry wounded soldiers off the battlefield.
Question for Joe Scarborough: If one day you were wounded on the mean streets of Nantucket, who would you want carrying your 6’4″ frame to safety? A burly man, or a weaker, slower woman?
In the fifth defensive post of the day, Fondacaro was given control of the day’s MRC podcast:
Pete Hegseth is a 20-year Army veteran with two combat tours, two Bronze Stars, and two Army Commendation Medals, but his nomination to be the secretary of defense has brought out the worst in the liberal media. NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck and I break down the media’s disgusting diminution of Hegseth’s career, and call out the liberal ladies of The View for their ignorance and divisiveness.
I was fairly spicy during this episode because few things grind my gears more than elitist journalists – who couldn’t even be bothered to be war correspondents in their careers – putting down the distinguished service of a veteran.
Of course, our gears grind a bit because Fondacaro believes he can spew libelous insults at “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin with impunity.
The MRC cranked out a couple more defense posts the next day, Nov. 14:
Klepper After Hegseth Nomination: Women ‘Have to Get Pregnant’ to Risk Life
MSNBC’s Mitchell Doubles Down On Fake News About Hegseth, Women Pilots
In a Nov. 16 column in which he also praised Gaetz, Jeffrey Lord gushed over Hegseth:
Hegseth, currently a Fox and Friends Weekend host, is infinitely more than a TV host. He is an Army veteran of longstanding, with service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, earning two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantry Badge. He has written extensively about the problems with a woke Pentagon as he has experienced it personally.
Then a new Hegseth controversy popped up, and it was Christy’s duty to take the first crack at trying to tamp it down:
During a discussion on the necessity of the Senate’s role in advising and consenting to cabinet appointees on MSNBC’s Friday edition of The Beat with Ari Melber, activist and lawyer Maya Wiley took a bit of a detour to attack Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth for allegedly having “white supremacist and extremist tattoos.”
Wiley declared, “We should also say, one of the things that’s so important in this function, in this role, is the people of this country should have some understanding of who is going to be making decisions about their daily lives because let’s remember.”
As an example, she focused on “Hegseth and his white supremacist and extremist tattoos on his body, he is also a person, if he is in this job, who will be having the discussion with Donald Trump about sending the military into communities to police U.S. citizens.”
[…]
The tattoos in question refer to depictions of a Jerusalem Cross and the words “Deus Vult” (God wills it). Both are Crusade-era symbols that are over 900 years old. Some say those have been co-opted by white supremacists, but even if [panelist Bill] Kristol and Hegseth have diverged on Trump, Kristol could have at least stood up for Hegseth’s character.
Christy didn’t explain why symbols of a 900-year-old holy war have any relevance to today — never mind why Hegseth insisted on having them tattooed so large and prominently on his body.
More issues to defend
As Hegseth’s issues continued, so did the MRC’s defense. Curtis Houck served up another defense of Hegseth’s ostentatiously large tattoos:
Surprisingly, the major broadcast networks had avoided the false, manufactured conspiracy theory about Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth’s Christian tattoos being symbols of white supremacy, but that ended Monday with ABC’s Good Morning America diving in without apology.
It came a day after the same show whined that Hegseth’s arrival at the Pentagon (if confirmed by the Senate) would be “cultural shock and awe” in ridding the military of its woke elements. That kvetching came at the same time NBC’s Sunday Today raised concern about his goal (along with President-Elect Trump) of bringing accountability to military generals involved in the deadly 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
ABC’s former North Korean news lady for the Kamala Harris campaign — chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce — was put on the case:
[…]
Notice that last line: “Hegseth’s post notably not disavowing the supremacists who have adopted the symbolism, though he has in the past.”
Oh, that’s her evidence? Claiming without evidence they’ve been coopted by white supremacists, so Hegseth is guilty by extension?
If Hegseth won’t disavow white supremacists, why wouldn’t he be?
A couple weeks later, Houck whined that more allegations involving Hegseth popped up:
With Matt Gaetz having stepped down from attorney general consideration almost two weeks ago, the liberal media have turned their ire toward decorated Army veteran, best-selling military author, and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
On Tuesday, they giddily passed along the “troubling” “new allegations” against him, including those peddled by far-left smear merchant Jane Mayer of The New Yorker (which they trumpeted as gospel) ludicrously painting Hegseth as a danger to women and our tax dollars.
CBS Mornings hailed from the get-go. In the Eye Opener, featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers peddled the “[n]ew allegations of drinking and sexual misconduct against Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.”
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King had the “troubling” line and shared the CBS at least “confirmed Pete Hegseth was forced to step down from a veterans’ nonprofit after being accused of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and mismanaging the group’s money.”
Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes had quite the approach to Hegseth, taking a condescending tone:
[…]
After airing a clip of congressional correspondent Nikole Killion chasing down Hegseth and asking him about being “drunk…on the job” and Hegseth scoffing he wouldn’t “dignify that with a response,” Cordes seemed to play up comments from Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) as a way to mock the GOP and play up the allegations.
Houck would not be giving Hegseth a pass for such evasiveness if he was a Democrat.
Bonilla similarly raged that Hegseth was being held accountable for his behavior:
As the Regime Media array themselves against the Trump Cabinet, it has become crystal clear that Defense Secretary-Designate Pete Hegseth has become a prime target. With the Hunter Biden pardon rapidly fading from coverage, the disqualification attacks against Hegseth drew top billing.
The most over-the-top coverage of Hegseth comes via the CBS Evening News. Outgoing anchor Norah O’Donnell’s wild introduction was tonally more in line with what you’d expect towards the end of a presidential campaign. Heck, it could’ve easily been published as a campaign press release:
[…]
O’Donnell’s intro feeds into a Nikole Killion report which served several purposes: to present Hegseth as unqualified for the position of Secretary of Defense (the insistence on describing him primarily as “Fox News host” and not as a decorated combat veteran), and to retail the various sets of allegations that have been made against Hegseth. Without evidence. More on that in a bit.
After Killion’s video package, O’Donnell tosses to incoming co-anchor John Dickerson, who further reinforces the credentialist disqualification narrative against Hegseth[.] […]
ABC and NBC’s reports were tame in comparison, even if they followed the same general contours as CBS’s wild report. There were the “Fox News host” references, the anonymously-sourced reports alleging wild behavior, and the whispered speculation that there might not be sufficient Republican votes in the Senate to confirm Hegseth. It should be noted that only Garrett Haake of NBC News referred to Hegseth as a “decorated combat veteran”-after asking him whether he had a drinking problem.
What we are watching unfold in real time is nothing less than the Kavaborking of Pete Hegseth. On the one hand, there is the drip-drip-drip of unsourced allegations of excessive alcohol consumption and sexual impropriety, similar to what we saw during the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.
On the other, the ferocious ideological opposition to the nominee. In performing his credentialist disqualification attack, CBS’s John Dickerson revealed the TRUE objection to Hegseth’s nomination, which is that he isn’t a card-carrying member of the D.C. Blob.
We don’t recall Bonilla or anyone else at the MRC calling out the “ferocious ideological opposition” to nominees from a Democratic president from Fox News — or from the MRC itself.
Houck returned for more damage control in rehashing a softball interview with him by a former Fox News colleague in a Dec. 4 post:
Shortly after his mother went on Wednesday’s Fox & Friends in support of his nomination to become defense secretary, Pete Hegseth sat down with fellow former Fox News host Megyn Kelly for over an hour on her eponymous SiriusXM show to discuss in detail the coordinated smear campaign by the liberal media and the Washington establishment that Kelly equated to the despicable character assassination against Brett Kavanaugh.
Hegseth started with the admission that he and his team will “do more talking because, for so long, what was said about me, what has been said about me — it was so ridiculous and all anonymous that we didn’t want to give it oxygen,” but their “ridiculous narrative” has forced his hand “to stand up and tell the truth.”
He added that, in the end, it’s the opinion of senators who matter and their questions, not “the hyenas in the hallway trying to chirp at my wife and I as we walk down the hallway.”
Kelly even made Kavanaugh into a verb in asking this question: “Do you think you’re being Kavanaughed right now?”
[…]
Kelly then disclosed that, on the Fox News/drinking claims, she was “the reason you became a contributor there and that was primetime night, you know, hits that you were doing with me and never once, not even the hint of alcohol or any alcohol problem.”
Hegseth doubled down on this being “the anatomy of the smear” that what the left is “trying to do is” have him “prove a negative.”
He also got down to brass tacks about the reality of how, between his morning show hosting duties and primetime hits as a guest, he was in proximity to dozens of people at Fox and no prior issues of drinking came up despite what he described as a place that “leak[ing] like a sieve.”
Houck served up even more complaints the next day:
On Thursday, CNN contributed to the liberal media smear campaign against Pete Hegseth by repeatedly passing along an insane Washington Post hit piece alleging President-Elect Trump’s secretary of defense pick “had a reputation as a heavy drinker” as per six anonymous former Fox News employees with one episode having come during — gasp! — a St. Patrick’s Day weekend segment!
CNN shared it on three different shows between 5:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Eastern and, of course, chose to leave out when the specific incident occurred. Better yet, CNN seems to have forgotten it’s infamous history of debauchery and on-air drinking from New Year’s Eve from, say, 2018, 2019, and 2020 (or the infamous crotch kiss in 2012).
First, behold the cartoonish Post article by reporters Michael Kranish, Dan Lamothe, Sarah Ellison and John Hudson working on behalf of the left, Pentagon establishment, and Republicans opposed to Hegseth:
[…]
CNN This Morning host Kasie Hunt brought it up on both hours of her show. In the first, she contrasted Hegseth “denying” to former colleague Megyn Kelly “that he has ever had a problem with excessive drinking” with a heavy “but” as if to suggest he was lying because of The Post “cit[ing] several employees from his time as a Fox News host that seemed to undercut those claims.”
Hunt’s second hour read the same, adding after quoting the anonymous sources that Hegseth “denied the reports when he was asked for comment by The Washington Post, but he is clearly aware of how central the issue of alcohol has become to his confirmation.”
Interesting the story never provides specificity other than consuming beers already laid out for a St. Patrick’s Day segment…which all the CNN segments ignored.
So, they’re worried about that being a hit to someone’s fitness to serve in government, but that never stopped CNN from letting Don Lemon becoming so drunk in 2016 he consented to having an ear pierced.
Houck appears not to have noticed, but being defense secretary requires a level of seriousness and, yes, sobriety not expected from TV hosts on New Year’s Eve. He didn’t explain why he’s trying to falsely conflate the two.
Hegseth’s mom
After all this, the MRC then had to enlist Hegseth’s mother in the effort. Rather than ask inconvenient questions about why a man nominated for secretary of defense has to have his mother do a media tour to defend him, Houck stayed in the approved Trump Regime Media lane with a Dec. 4 post that portrayed her as a victim over the release of an email she doesn’t deny writing:
On Wednesday, Pete Hegseth’s mother Penelope stepped out from private life into the spotlight for a sit-down on Fox & Friends to lay waste to the “almost criminal” liberal media and specifically “discredit” The New York Times for leaking a 2018 e-mail she had written to her son amid his second divorce but quickly regretted.
Speaking to co-host Steve Doocy, Mrs. Hegseth started by stating she’d “do anything for my son” and implored “the senators on the Hill especially our female senators” to listen to “the truth” and “not listen to the media.”
Hegseth said, on the e-mail itself, she said the Pete she was dealing with seven years ago was a far different man than the one he is now.
“[I]f all went back seven years we would — we would see that maybe we were not the people we are today but they were going through, Pete and his wife at the time were going through a very difficult divorce. It was a very emotional time and I’m sure many of you across the country understand how difficult divorce is on a family. There’s emotions. We say things and I wrote that in haste. I wrote that with deep emotions. I wrote that as a parent,” she said before noting she retracted it hours later.
She then called out the liberal media smear campaign as “dangerous,” “threaten[ing]” and “hard on families”:
Houck didn’t explain how reporting on an email Hegseth’s mother doesn’t dispute the authenticity of is a “smear campaign.” He did admit that Hegseth’s mother “did largely duck questions about whether she’s worried the firestorm will keep Trump from “hit[ting] the ground running” next month, whether she’d testify before Congress if asked, and if she’s done any investigating as to how the e-mail to her son was leaked to The Times.”
In another post that day, Houck hyped a Fox News interview Hegseth himself did with Fox News:
They later closed with The New York Times hit job against Hegesth and his mother and the leak of a 2018 e-mail she sent to him amid his second divorce.
Hegseth and Kelly refused to pretend to be outraged, admitting this is what they do. After crediting The Times for at least speaking to his mother, he admitted it was a difficult time.
Instead of focusing on the redemptive factor, he noted, the liberal media have tried to paint Hegseth as having a tenuous relationship with his mom:
Houck didn’t explain why nobody is allowed to ask why Hegeth’s mother wrote such a harsh email, even if claims to have immediately regretted it. He also didn’t explain how the Times article, whose accuracy neither he nor the Hegseth family disputes, is somehow a “hit job.”
Tim Graham whined about it in his Dec. 4 podcast:
Would you like to imagine The New York Times publishing an email your mother sent you telling you you’re a terrible spouse? That’s what happened to Pete Hegseth, and his mother Penelope. They will use notes that were supposed to be private for their own political gain.
“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote to her son in 2018 during his second divorce. Then she said she apologized two hours later, but that doesn’t stop the lefties. She called the Times “despicable.”
She said she felt threatened by the language of the Times, even if this is sort of their modus operandi. They say, “this is what we’re going to publish, so what are you going to say about it?” It can feel like a threat, that we’re publishing this personal email in an attempt to derail your son’s career. Of course that feels threatening to her.
Most Americans would look at this occasion and say at the very least that the media can be very rude when it has a political agenda it wants to win. Their objective is to crumble as many Trump nominations as they can. Even after confirmation, they’ll seek to ruin Cabinet members. That hasn’t happened under Biden.
Graham didn’t want to discuss why the career of a man who treats women so badly that his mother calls him out on it shouldn’t be derailed. But this is the MRC, where Republicans are always victims and Democrats are always the aggressors.
Bonilla claimed that ABC “stoops to a new low by seemingly mocking Hegseth’s mother’s appearance on Fox & Friends“:
We may have arrived at Mean Girls territory with Mary Bruce’s lingering on Hegseth’s mom. Of course, the purpose of such lingering is to extend the shelf life of the dubiously-sourced email published in The New York Times, notwithstanding its being refuted at every turn by Mrs. Musk among others.
If nobody disputes the authenticity of the email, it’s irrelevant whether it’s “dubiously sourced,” or that Hegseth’s mom has “refuted [it] at every turn.”
Christy — the MRC’s resident comedy cop — tried to defend Hegseth and his mom from those nasty late-night comedians in a Dec. 5 post:
Meanwhile, back over at Comedy Central, The Daily Show’s host of the week, Ronny Chieng, also tried to suggest Penelope Hegseth coming to her son’s defense was disqualifying, “What kind of parent-teacher conference are we watching right now? Because the future Secretary of Defense needs his mom to come out and defend him? I thought you were against women in combat roles. And besides, I never saw Donald Rumsfeld be like, ‘Hey, I have a warning for the Taliban. Mom, you tell them.’”
Chieng added, “Now, the reason Pete’s mom is part of this story is because a few years ago, during his second divorce, his mom sent him an email where she called him, her own son, a habitual cheater, liar, and abuser of women. But now she’s saying, eh, don’t worry about it!”
After a clip of Penelope Hegseth claiming Pete has changed and “most of” the stories going around about him are “misinformation,” Chieng attacked, “What? Misinformation? You wrote the email! You’re the one who told us he is a piece of shit. And by the way, seven years wasn’t ancient history, okay. We still have the same Spiderman.”
If Penelope Hegseth was a credible enough source to claim Pete had problems in his life he needed to fix then she is a credible enough source to claim that he is a changed man.
Christy won’t concede that it’s just as likely Hegseth is making his mom do this in order to salvage his nomination, making her less than credible — or that it comes off as more than a little emasculating for Hegseth to force his mom to do this media apology tour of shame, as well as to call up senators to beg for their support of her son.