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!”
