Most – not all – media all over the Pete Hegseth story

Pete Hegseth’s improbable leap from Fox News host to Secretary of Defense might be in jeopardy because of several controversial and serious allegations.

Then again, if you get your news from conservative media and only conservative media, you might ask, “What stories? What allegations?”

In his “Reliable Sources” newsletter on Tuesday, CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, “What's a media outlet supposed to do when its longtime host is picked to run the Pentagon, and then a series of eyebrow-raising news stories trigger doubts about his appointment? If you're Fox News, evidently, you just pretend the stories don't exist.”

Again, this was Tuesday morning when Stelter was writing about Hegseth — the former Fox News host who is Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense. Since Trump announced his decision, one controversial allegation after another has plagued Hegseth.

But as of Tuesday evening, virtually none of them could be found on Fox News.

The stories about Hegseth have gotten so bad, however, that on Tuesday night, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported, Hegseth is going to sit down today for an interview with Fox News.

Will it be a hard-hitting interview meant to flesh out the truth? Or, seeing as how it is with his longtime employer, will it be a bunch of softballs meant to salvage Hegseth’s reputation and resuscitate his nomination? My guess is the latter.

What a mess.

Back on Nov. 21, CNN’s Casey Tolan, Scott Glover and Sara Murray reported, “Police report reveals new details from sexual assault allegation against Trump’s defense secretary nominee.”

Then just this week was Jane Mayer’s piece in The New Yorker, which included a whistle-blower report from when Hegseth led the Concerned Veterans for America in the early 2010s. The whistle blower alleged sexual misconduct by Hegseth and other men, as well as incidents of public intoxication. (Check out Mediaite’s David Gilmour with “5 Most Shocking Details From The New Yorker’s Pete Hegseth Whistleblower Report.”)

That story came on the heels of The New York Times publishing a stunning email that Hegseth’s mother sent Hegseth in April of 2018. In it, Penelope Hegseth told her son, in part, “I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out. You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

The Times’ Sharon LaFraniere and Julie Tate reported that Penelope Hegseth said she immediately apologized to her son after sending the email. LaFraniere and Tate wrote, “In the interview, she defended her son and disavowed the sentiments she had expressed in the initial email about his character and treatment of women. ‘It is not true. It has never been true,’ she said. She added: ‘I know my son. He is a good father, husband.’ She said that publishing the contents of the first email was ‘disgusting.’ ”

Stelter’s story early Tuesday said, “Fox News, which employed Pete Hegseth for a decade, has not covered the past week’s controversies involving President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, according to SnapStream and TVEyes database searches. The omission is potentially significant because Fox is the top TV outlet for Republicans, and Hegseth’s confirmation hinges on Republican senators.”

Stelter added, “On Fox, Hegseth’s former colleagues aren’t raising alarms about the allegations or defending him – they’re just not talking about the issue at all. It’s far from the first time Fox and other friendly pro-Trump spaces have outright ignored or distracted their audience from an unflattering story widely reported by mainstream news outlets.”

It wasn’t really until Tuesday evening that Fox News even mentioned the troubling stories surrounding Hegseth. Anchor Aishah Hasnie said, “Hegseth, of course, faces allegations of sexual assault and a drinking problem, which he denies.”

Then came another troubling story Tuesday. NBC News’ Chloe Melas, Courtney Kube and Sarah Fitzpatrick reported that, according to 10 current or former Fox News employees, Hegseth drank alcohol in ways that concerned his colleagues.

They wrote, “Two of those people said that on more than a dozen occasions during Hegseth’s time as a co-host of ‘Fox & Friends Weekend,’ which began in 2017, they smelled alcohol on him before he went on air. Those same two people, plus another, said that during his time there he appeared on television after they’d heard him talk about being hungover as he was getting ready or on set.”

Now, to be clear, there are no reports that Hegseth ever missed a TV appearance because of drinking. And it would only be fair to point out that Hegseth would not be the first person on the planet to show up to work with a hangover.

But it’s just another story Hegseth (and Trump) didn’t need with the nomination still very much up in the air.

Despite all the allegations and negativity surrounding Hegseth, it would not be surprising if the Senate confirms his nomination. Hegseth is meeting with Republican senators on Capitol Hill this week. Stelter noted that Trump senior adviser Jason Miller appeared on CNN Tuesday morning and told Kasie Hunt that “when it comes to Pete Hegseth, there aren't any concerns and we feel very good about his positioning for being confirmed by the Senate.”

Then again, CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane reported that South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told CBS News, “I think some of these articles are very disturbing. He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is — it's going to be difficult.”

CNN also reported that Hegseth’s nomination could be in trouble with some Republican senators having concerns. NBC News reported that as many as six Republican senators, and maybe more, are not comfortable with the stories about Hegseth. Assuming every Democratic senator votes no on Hegseth, six no votes from Republicans would be more than enough to sink Hegseth’s confirmation.

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Does X still mark the spot?

I will admit that I’m still a frequent consumer of X.

I rarely tweet anymore, except for the occasional work-related link or random sports take. But I do look at X throughout the day. It is still a go-to source for general news, as well as what I especially care about — media news.

But ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter and changed the name to X, many in the media world have looked for an alternative social media platform. First, it was Threads. And lately it has been Bluesky.

My colleague, Amaris Castillo, looked into this with her latest story: “As journalists think of leaving X for Bluesky and Threads, media experts see pros and cons.”

Castillo wrote, “It’s been called an exodus. People are leaving the Elon Musk-owned X in droves, in favor of Meta-owned Threads and Bluesky, an app that was initially a project of Jack Dorsey when he was CEO of Twitter. Both experienced tremendous growth this fall. Bluesky recently surpassed 20 million users, and Adam Mosseri, who heads Instagram, announced that there were more than 35 million signups of Threads in November alone. X users who have chosen to post elsewhere are either deactivating their accounts or simply choosing not to engage with them.”

There’s much more to Castillo’s story as she talks to journalists who have made the jump to social media sites other than X.

A different path for covering crime

For this special item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Barbara Allen.

Poynter’s Kelly McBride has a tough fact to share with you: For decades, newsrooms have been an unwitting public relations arm for law enforcement.

And she admits she was once part of the problem.

“I was a police reporter for years. I covered the gamut, from small-town to metropolitan center,” McBride said. “And that’s how I know firsthand how tough it can be to change the way we do business.”

McBride is co-lead instructor of Transforming Local Crime Reporting Into Public Safety Journalism, a change management program from Poynter designed to help newsrooms improve their promotion of public safety and community awareness.

She said that journalists are disingenuous about why we cover crime.

“We tell ourselves that we cover it so that the public can keep itself safe, but the old system of cops reporting creates sensational crime scoops that don’t really help people understand the issues and trends that impact public safety,” she said.

In Transforming Crime, she said, newsroom teams will learn some more tough facts: That they should move away from an “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality and instead prioritize public safety and community impact as coverage goals. That they should focus on explanatory and accountability reporting, and include perspectives from those communities most affected by crime. And finally, that newsrooms should use data to understand and communicate trends, develop clear guidelines for which crimes actually deserve coverage, and learn to create formal policies and training programs to improve their reporting.

Applications for the next course are due this Friday, Dec. 6, for the early bird price of $600 per newsroom team. The final deadline is Jan. 17 at $1,000 per team.

“In a world of limited resources, we often chose to do the stories that are easy and accessible, rather than the stories that are actually helpful to our audiences,” McBride said. “If we’re going to say that journalism is a critical part of democracy, we have to choose to spend our resources on stories that we think will help our audience participate in democracy — not just be interesting or sensational.”

A new deal?

This is a big deal, pun intended.

Variety’s Brian Steinberg reports that ESPN and star personality Stephen A. Smith are close to hammering out a new contract. Smith’s current contract is set to expire in 2025. Puck News reported earlier this year that ESPN had offered Smith $18 million a year to stay. Smith is believed to make about $12 million a year with his current deal.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported the deal is in the six-year, $120 million range. But when Marchand asked if the deal was close, Smith told him in a text, “False.”

At various times in the past, ESPN has tried to get away from focusing on big individual personalities. But times have changed and ESPN is all about its highly paid stars — a list that now includes Mike Greenberg, Scott Van Pelt, Pat McAfee (who owns his own show), as well as the “Monday Night Football” announcing team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

But ESPN might not have a bigger personality than Smith, whose morning show “First Take” is one of the network’s signature and most-watched shows. Smith also is a regular on ESPN’s NBA coverage.

While no one in sports television is ever truly irreplaceable, Smith is about as close as it gets for ESPN. Re-signing him clearly is, and should be, a priority.

Media tidbits

• Mediaite’s Alex Griffing with “Did The Trump Meeting Really Tank Morning Joe’s Ratings?”
• This is a must-read: Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple with “Who still trusts legacy media? Fox News, that’s who.”
• Ted Anthony, The Associated Press’ director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation, with “Associated Press 100 Photos of 2024: An epic catalog of humanity.”
• USA Today’s Anthony Robledo with “Woman thought long-lost brother was dead. Then she saw his face in USA Today.”
• The Pennsylvania Capital-Star’s Ian Karbal with “The strike at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is now the longest in the nation. And it’s not over.”
• Axios’ Sara Fischer with “Amazon eyes news partners for revamped AI Alexa voice assistant.”
• The Hollywood Reporter’s Caitlin Huston with “Oprah Launches New Podcast Series Featuring Book Club Authors.”
• Good column from the always-interesting Perry Bacon of The Washington Post: “Harris’s advisers blame everything but themselves for their loss.”
• Variety’s Brian Steinberg with “Sean Hannity to Host Monthly Longform Interview Program on Fox Nation.”
• Fox News’ Kendall Tietz with “Forbes editorial staffers walk off the job the same day as release of the company's '30 Under 30' list.”

Hot type

• The New York Times with “The 10 Best Books of 2024.”
• The Los Angeles Times’ Meredith Blake with “‘My So-Called Life’ at 30: How a short-lived show became a ’90s pop culture touchstone.”’
• The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman, Laine Higgins and Tom Dotan with “The Billionaire, His Mystery Wife and College Football’s Wildest Recruiting Saga.”

More resources for journalists

• Early bird applications to transform your crime coverage close soon.
• Leadership Academy for Women in Media applications close this Friday!
• Our training for public media executives application period ends this week.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].