The Media Research Center performed its Trump Regime Media duty in hyping Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary — and trying to distract form his numerous issues. 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.
Jorge 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.