In Front of Our Noses: Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
Plus: the Strait of Hormuz.
Via The Hill: Hegseth blasts CNN: ‘The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better’.
“Fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz. Patently ridiculous, of course. For decades, Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what they do, hold the strait hostage,” Hegseth said during the press briefing at the Pentagon.
“CNN doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” Hegseth, a former Fox News host, told reporters.
Here’s the clip:
This is striking for a number of reasons, but what immediately hit me was the acknowledgment that the administration wants Ellison to take over CNN because they know it will improve coverage of their actions. This is how authoritarian governments think.
Hegseth wants the news to be a cheerleader. He objects to a headline on CNN: “War Widening,” for example. That is, I would note, an empirically true statement. However, he wants the headline to be “Iran Shrinking, Going Underground.” This is what he wants a “patriotic press” to report.
I understand that all administrations want the news reported in a way that is favorable. I can even understand why Hegseth would want different headlines on CNN. I don’t even mind, in the abstract, the notion that a SecDef might complain about coverage. But rooting for a billionaire ally to take over a major news outlet so that it can be a more “patriotic” outlet is a whole other ballgame. This just reveals a dangerous attitude about the relationship between the government and the press in Hegseth’s mind.
Let me note that he can whine all he likes about coverage over the Strait of Hormuz, but the reality is that while I am sure that Hegseth and others in the administration knew it existed, it seems manifestly obvious that they miscalculated the situation. It seems pretty clear that the administration thought they could launch a Maduro-style decapitation and then move on to something else.
If what we are seeing is the administration actually having planned for this situation, then that might be worse than having overlooked the possibility. I would note that responses to the Strait problem, like offering US government insurance to ships, or talk of escorts, have sure seemed on the fly and not part of any advanced planning.
All of this is heightened by Hegseth’s arrogant ignorance as delivered in a way that is a weird combination of entitled frat boy who doesn’t like his professor and a BrillCream preacher. The whole thing is a performance designed to cover incompetence.
A parting note: as I was typing, I realized that at least part of his assertions about the Strait of Hormuz reminded me of Martin Short’s SNL character, Nathan Thurm. “It’s so funny you should say that! Of course, we knew about the Strait of Hormuz! I’m not being defensive, you’re being defensive!”
Hegseth’s blathering about Ellison and CNN makes any move Ellison makes more difficult. Dummy has offered proof that any changes Ellison makes is to hide the truth from the voters.
WSJ via Atrios,
@gVOR10:
Oh, swell. And I’d be running marathons if I had 2 whole legs.
Pete Hegseth, another unqualified lunatic allowed to stay in his job because he’s a white male. Any other race or gender blabbering like this drunken idiot would’ve been laughed out of office long ago. An abject disgrace that this incompetent airhead has risen to such power, but par the course given America’s embarrassing electorate made an obviously unqualified pedophile our president twice, over women superior in every way.
Pete Hegseth is a dumb bimbo who has no idea what he’s doing. Very scary!
@Sleeping Dog:
This assumes a level of discernment from news consumers not clearly in evidence.
The low-information voter watches Fox et al to have their biases confirmed, not challenged by novel ideas like “the truth.” The data from 2024 shows clearly that Trump won on low-information voters. CNN in the hands of Ellison just means one less threat to the Trump voter trying to hang onto their epistemic closure.
My God, imagine the hell to pay if Democrats were in office.
@DK: I think the correct term is “Himbo”.
@DK:
Ahem: Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Karoline Leavitt and Jeanine Pirro.
@Michael Reynolds:
Have Bondi, Leavitt, and Pirro lost their jobs?
@DK:
Honest to God (or Buddha or Rex Hubbard …) This administration is staffed by the most dangerous idiots in the world.
There’s been some buzz about Hestegh banning photographers from his press conferences, because one published an unflattering picture of him.
Really, I’ve yet to see a flattering picture of him. He always looks confused or befuddled in 99.9% of all his photos (and not much better on video). Which is to be expected of someone in so far over his head.
@Kathy:
Apparently he wants only pics that make him look “hot” published.
@DAllenABQ: Ha. I’ve always thought of himbo as a term of endearment. He doesn’t deserve it.
@Michael Reynolds: Only one there even close to being as drunk + dumb + unqualified as Whiskey Pete is: Pirro. (And she’s less ignorant and less unqualified than he is, btw.) To my point, no one would accept Judge Jeanine as Defense Secretary. Nomination would’ve been withdrawn within hours, amid a cascade of laughter.
Noem, Bondi, and Leavitt are monsters, but evil is not stupid. Noem and Bondi aren’t braniacs, but they aren’t stone cold stupid (like Heggy). Both women held serious offices pre-2025.
Leavitt is as sharp as a velociraptor actually. A malevolent and sinister compulsive liar allergic to ethical behavior, but not a moron.
@CSK:
So, he wants to be photographed in a sauna? Then he should hold his conferences in one.
It’d be kinda funny if this incompetent sociopath didn’t occupy such a consequential position. The scripted words were dark, but his stilted delivery was odd:
Patel@Michael Reynolds:
Also Kash Patel; and my favourite moron, Tulsi Gabbard.
Not to mention Bessent and Lutnick
And above all Kushner and Witkoff.
I cannot think of any US adminstration ever so afflicted by idiots in office.
We also got this scripted gem today from the secretary of war crimes:
Spoken as someone confident in securing a presidential pardon by the time this administration is done.
Between this war and the bombing of boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, but especially the bombing of helpless survivors of an attack on a boat earlier, the US could do worse than join the ICC and extradite the lush and several of his aides.
Of course, this will never happen.