Furthering the Media Research Center’s complaints that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s meeting that could’ve been an email consisting of summoning generals from bases around the world to Washington so he could berate them in person, Alex Christy went into comedy-cop mode in an Oct. 1 post:
There were plenty of dumb hot takes from the left after a Tuesday speech by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to an assembled audience of generals and admirals, but CBS’s Stephen Colbert may have had the dumbest. For some reason, The Late Show host tried to tie Hegseth’s observation that the people in the crowd “kill people and break things” to other ongoing conversations about the need to dial down inflammatory political rhetoric.
Colbert also didn’t seem to understand who Hegseth’s audience was as he introduced a clip of the speech, “Because in the actual speech, Hegseth went five-star douche, and at one point, pegged the camera with what he was sure was gonna be an applause line.”
In the clip, Hegseth declared, “Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies: FAFO.”
Colbert reacted by suggesting Hegseth failed at stand up, “Oh. Oh, no. I know that feeling. I’ve been there. When you think it’s gonna land, that quiet crowd really hurts. It happens to a lot of people.”
If the generals and admirals responded with the kind of applause or laughter Colbert thinks Hegseth wanted, then he would say the speech was an improper politicization of the military. Nevertheless, Colbert continued to appear to be confused by the idea that the military exists to deter the nation’s enemies and defeat them should that fail as he introduced another clip, “Hegseth went all-in on what he calls his ‘warrior ethos.’”
This time, Hegseth was shown telling the audience, “Today is another liberation day. The liberation of America’s warriors, in name, in deed, and in authorities. You kill people and break things for a living.”
A sarcastic Colbert replied, “I’ll say it. The Democrats have got to turn down the temperature on their violent rhetoric.”
As we’ve come to expect from this comedy cop, Christy didn’t get that last joke: “That makes no sense. Examining Democratic rhetoric after the Charlie Kirk assassination and the targeting of an ICE facility in Dallas has no relation to Hegseth not sugarcoating what war is.”
Jorge Bonilla served up more whining about criticism of Hegseth:
Another day, another pompous and insanely over-the-top editorial to close out CBS Evening News Plus. This time, John Dickerson blesses us with his grandes pensées on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s convocation of his top generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisers for what has been colloquially termed a “Come to Pete” meeting.
[…]Dickerson’s analogies and questions demonstrate his lack of understanding with regard to what it is that the military does and what the chain of command is. Hegseth and Trump weren’t “cooking dinner for the best 800 chefs in the world.” They were telling them, on behalf of the American people, that the restaurant is under new administration and that menu is changing.
The top brass may well be experts in all the things Dickerson says they are, we can stipulate to that. But this wasn’t a leadership seminar or a TED talk. The top military brass were not there to weigh, consider, or analyze anything. These generals and admirals, like the men and women that serve under their command, were there to receive lawful ORDERS. And orders they received.
All of this escapes Dickerson’s piety and reflexive anti-Trumpism. The editorial leaves one to believe that Dickerson thinks the military is a corporation, where people work collaboratively and without clear command structure. The Department of War, which Dickerson refuses to name, is no such organization. So it is that viewers are once again served with a heaping dose of false piety disguised as expertise- even if, in this instance, Dickerson doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
As if Bonilla is not engaging in petty partisan piety and reflexive pro-Trumpism. He apparently does not believe any Trump official should ever be criticized, ever.
Bonilla blew a gasket in an Oct. 5 post over a claim made by Sen. Tammy Duckworth discussing what he euphemistically described as Hegseth’s “recent convocation of senior officers” and referencing “the female that graduated from SEAL school” when women apparently graduate from a different school:
No such woman exists, and Duckworth once again goes unabated. Throughout this interview, there was no waggling of the pen from [Margaret] Brennan, no interruption or fact-checking. There was only quiet deference as Duckworth spoke with the confidence of someone who was secure in her ability to get her message across uninterrupted. Some might say it’s just (D)ifferent.
We don’t recall Bonilla ever offer any fact-checking of a conservative. That would be (R)eally different.