U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks throughout a press convention at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, on March 5, 2026.
Photo: Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images
Since the beginning of the war in Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has incessantly used his platform to play media critic, torching retailers and reporters for a way they’re masking the warfare whereas boasting concerning the United States’s army would possibly.
This tendency was on full show Friday when Hegseth went after perennial Trump goal NCS, amongst others, accusing the information outlet of inaccurate reporting and even weighing in on its attainable sale to Paramount, a pending merger the president has greater than a passing curiosity in. Hegseth was notably incensed by a NCS story printed on Thursday that claimed the Trump administration had didn’t plan for Iran’s close to closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a extremely predictable final result of the joint U.S. and Israeli bombing marketing campaign.
“More fake news from NCS. ‘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 stated.
The secretary continued, “NCS doesn’t think we thought of that. It’s a fundamentally unserious report. The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
Hegseth alleged that the media is deliberately taking a very damaging method to its protection, even going so far as suggesting alternate headlines for information reviews. “For example, a banner headline: ‘Mideast War Intensifies’ splashing on the screen the last couple of days alongside visuals of civilian or energy targets that Iran has hit because that’s what they do. What should the banner read instead? How about ‘Iran Increasingly Desperate’? Because they are. They know it and so do you, if it can be admitted,” Hegseth stated.
The secretary’s media criticism comes because the Iran warfare nears its third week with no clear decision in sight. Hegseth opened his remarks by claiming that the U.S. is attaining its targets in opposition to Iran and previewed an escalation of actions abroad that includes the “highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran and Tehran.”
“Bottom line up front for the world to hear — and the press to actually admit — that the United States is decimating the radical Iranian regime’s military in a way the world has never seen before,” he stated.
But Hegseth was much less forthcoming in different areas, downplaying reviews that Iran has begun putting mines within the Strait of Hormuz, a key transport route that has seen site visitors plummet for the reason that warfare started. “We’ve heard them talk about it, just like you’ve reported recklessly and wildly about it. But we have no clear evidence. We have no clear evidence of that,” he told one reporter.
The secretary was additionally pressed on an inside authorities investigation, which suggests the United States was doubtless liable for the strike that leveled an elementary college in southern Iran originally of the warfare that has killed an estimated 175 folks, together with youngsters.
“We’re not going to let reporting lead us or force our hand into indicating what happened in a particular situation because the truth matters,” Hegseth said with no trace of irony. “But I will note to this group and to the world: There’s only one entity in this conflict, between us and Iran, that never targets civilians. Literally never targets civilians. I look at the process that’s used on dynamic strikes or on boat strikes and others. We have a high-fidelity process in that case. We don’t target, Iran does. We will investigate and we will get to the truth and we’ll share it when we have it.”