Could The Boat Strikes Sink Hegseth?

Old-fashioned reporting is turning the screws on the Trump administration

Credit: Getty Images

If there was any doubt that this country desperately needs — now more than ever — a vigorous and unyielding press, look no further than the recent reporting on Pete Hegseth, the Fox TV weekend anchor turned Secretary of Defense.

The Washington Post has some serious editorial ownership issues with Trump sycophant Jeff Bezos, but kudos to its reporters who continue to fight the good fight.

Last week the paper broke the story that Hegseth verbally ordered the military to leave no survivors in its attacks on suspected drug trafficking boats off the coast of Venezuela.

On September 2, after a missile strike by the U.S. military, two men can be seen on video clinging to burning debris. “The order was to kill everybody,” a Pentagon official told the Post. A second strike killed any survivors.

While Hegseth has denied telling SEAL Team 6 to “kill them all,” he also thinks his possible war crime is a joke. He posted an AI-generated meme of a smiling children’s book character firing a rocket from a helicopter at drug boats.

But this is no joking matter. Have we no shame? As a country, as a people, have we come to this?

Some on the Hill are deeply concerned. The reporting got the attention of Congress as lawmakers from both parties worried out loud about whether the attacks constitute war crimes.

In addition, Title 18 of the U.S. Code defines a war crime, among other illegal acts, as “the act of a person who intentionally kills [...] one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause.”

And we would never have known about the incident if Hegseth had his way.

It was only six weeks ago that the Pentagon press corps packed up and left the building after Hegseth ordered they cover the Department of Defense on his terms. He demanded the media sign a pledge to only publish information cleared by his press office. So the media walked. In their place are a few right-wing outlets “covering” the Pentagon like Pravda covers the Kremlin.

Now Hegseth’s scheme for control is showing cracks. The Post’s piece quoted “some current and former U.S. officials and law-of-war experts.” They suggest that the strike campaign “is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to prosecution.”

As hard as the Trump administration tries to suppress journalists, good reporting continues to find example after example of probable corruption — from pay-to-play pardons, to crypto schemes to enriching the family Trump. The White House press secretary denies it all, saying recently, “Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”

And the more the press digs, the angrier Donald Trump becomes. His detestation of the news media has escalated to levels usually reserved for middle school playgrounds. As with all bullies the president’s notion about how he should be treated — that he should be revered and free from criticism — is unrealistic. And unworthy of the leader of a constitutional democracy.

Last week, the White House unveiled a new assault on freedom of the press: a page on its official government website that tracks supposed media bias. The oh-so-subtle tagline reads: “Misleading. Biased. Exposed.” It is the cyber equivalent of stamping one’s feet.

Seemingly for sport, the page names and shames news organizations for coverage the president doesn’t like. Inductees into its “Hall of Shame” include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the Associated Press and CNN, among dozens more. The site also boasts a database of hundreds of stories, tagged with alleged offenses like “bias,” “lies,” and “left wing lunacy,” and lists reporters’ names, calling them “media offenders.”

This week’s “Offenders of the Week” include CBS News, The Boston Globe, and The Independent for their coverage of Trump’s calls for the hanging of six Democratic members of Congress who posted a video reminding the military that they should not follow illegal orders.

An unintended consequence of this latest Trump tantrum is that now many of the well-reported articles about Trump and his illegal, unethical and democracy-eroding activities are easily found in one convenient place, at WhiteHouse.gov. And kudos to the journalists and media organizations that made the cut, they have skillfully touched a nerve.

The Washington Post is at the top of the White House’s media enemy’s list because the paper broke several stories in recent days that had the White House spitting nails.

Besides the Hegseth story, it was the first to report that the United States Coast Guard was declassifying swastikas, the emblem of the Nazi Party, and nooses as hate symbols; instead, calling them “potentially divisive.” The USCG reversed that decision within days of publication.

Although the White House is specific about what it finds offensive and it clearly points out what it thinks reporters get wrong, it is the White House that is usually wrong. CBS News, The Independent and The Daily Beast are accused of “describing [Kilmar Abrego Garcia] as a ‘Maryland dad,’” which he is, and “omitting facts about his criminal history,” which they didn’t do because. . . he has no criminal history.

This newest trope to disparage the media comes on the heels of an uptick in personal insults from the president. In just the past week, Trump called reporters “piggy,” “a terrible person and a terrible reporter,” and “a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.” He asked correspondent Nancy Cordes of CBS News, “Are you stupid?” If only she had responded, “No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?” The beneficiaries of these insults have all been women.

Obviously, he doth protest too much. A man in control of the narrative would not stoop to attacking the media so many times in new and nasty ways.

Perhaps to counter the new White House bias tracker, Reuters has a new tracker of its own. But this one is keeping track of the targets of the president’s vengeance. While campaigning for president Trump often told his supporters “I am your retribution.” That is one campaign promise he has kept. In spades.

The Reuters’ list includes federal employees, law firms, state and local government officials, prosecutors, universities and, of course, the media. The Trump 2.0 tally so far is 470 acts of retribution and counting.

“Nine media organizations have faced federal investigations, lawsuits, threats to revoke their broadcast licenses and limits on access to White House events,” the website stated.

Trump condemns the press with an old line from Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, calling them “the enemy of the people.” That’s a label that should be reserved for actual threats to our country and our democracy. The real enemy here is the man these reporters are holding to account.

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Stay Steady,
Dan