Hegseth’s 'Signal' Snafu and Selective Media Outrage

According to the media at large, Hegseth’s texts are the real apocalypse, and “tiny” things—like dead soldiers, abandoned allies, and diplomatic disasters—were just Tuesday.

The following is a news analysis.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Trump-appointed Pentagon chief, has committed the cardinal sin of allegedly sharing sensitive—but unclassified—military plans in Signal group chats. Some in the media are apoplectic, painting him as a national security menace who might as well have handed Muslim terrorist Houthi rebels a PowerPoint of U.S. airstrike schedules. Hegseth blames “leakers” and “disgruntled former employees” for the uproar.

Meanwhile, a stroll down memory lane produces marvel at how some of the same media failed to demand the same type of accountability for far graver missteps by Biden appointees and others.

Some of you will recall that in my book “The Smear,” I discuss that a hallmark of a smear campaign, even when it involves true allegations, is the disproportionate response or media outrage that amplifies the issue beyond its actual significance, often through coordinated efforts to exaggerate, sensationalize, or selectively present facts to manipulate public perception and maximize damage to the target's reputation. The goal is not to force an apology or true accountability; it’s to destroy the target for other, unstated reasons.

Compare the outrage over Hegseth to the far more damaging, deadly, and significant Afghanistan withdrawal under President Biden, the secret hospital getaway by Biden’s Defense Secretary, and—lest we forget—the Benghazi debacle under President Obama. In the Benghazi, Libya attacks, Muslim extremist terrorists killed Americans after having telegraphed warnings for months, only to have top State Department officials under Hillary Clinton brush off the warnings, and then try to cover up the terrorist nature of the attacks. Nobody to speak of was held accountable for those transgressions.

But we’re to believe that Hegseth’s text messages qualify as the real threat to civilization and, for that, he should be ousted.

Let’s review Hegseth’s “scandal.”

Reports indicate he shared some information about planned U.S. strikes in Yemen, sourced from secure military channels, in two Signal chats—one oddly including a hostile media reporter; the other with Hegseth’s wife, brother, and lawyer.

The information, according to Hegseth and Pentagon spokesmen, wasn’t classified, though critics argue it was sensitive enough to endanger operations. The fallout? Demands for his resignation, scathing op-eds, and a Pentagon in “disarray” narrative. Democrats labeled him a “threat to national security.” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska)— heavily supported by donations from defense contractors—called for Hegseth’s resignation.

The media’s feeding frenzy suggests this is the Pentagon’s Watergate, with Hegseth cast as a reckless Fox News cowboy unfit for the job.

Comparatively, the botched U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal of August 2021 was a minor hiccup, given the media’s disparate response when it comes to demands for accountability. The Biden administration’s chaotic exit left 13 U.S. service members dead in a Kabul airport bombing, stranded American citizens, and abandoned billions in military equipment to the Islamic extremist Taliban. Approximately 170 Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide bombing during the pullout, and a mistaken U.S. drone strike killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children.

A 2022 House Foreign Affairs Committee report found the Afghanistan withdrawal was plagued by poor planning, ignored intelligence warnings, and a failure to evacuate allies promptly. No one—not Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, not Secretary of State Antony Blinken, not a single general—faced meaningful consequences. The media? They offered somber think pieces but no sustained outrage, no calls for mass firings for errors and deaths that were objectively avoidable.

Meantime, Hegseth faces resignation demands and a congressional inquisition for texts that didn’t kill anyone.

Then there’s Lloyd Austin’s vanishing act in early 2024. Biden’s Defense Secretary, battling prostate cancer, was hospitalized for complications but allegedly didn’t bother informing the White House, Congress, or his own deputy for days. This during a time of heightened Middle East tensions and ongoing Ukraine aid coordination.

The media largely framed the whole scandat as a “communication lapse,” not a national security crisis. Austin apologized, and the story faded.

With Benghazi in 2012, the Obama administration’s response was a masterclass in mismanagement and coverups: inadequate security despite prior warnings, a delayed military response that likely cost lives, and a bizarre false narrative blaming a YouTube video. A 2016 House Select Committee report criticized the State Department’s “systemic failures” under Secretary Hillary Clinton, yet no one was fired or prosecuted. The media often portrayed Republican calls for accountability as partisan overreach.

Clinton skated to a presidential nomination after all of that…while Hegseth’s text messages have him on the chopping block.

There are many other comparisons that could be made. But a final one I’ll mention is that of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which Hegseth himself lambasted as a Fox News host. As Secretary of State, Clinton improperly used an unsecured server for classified communications, potentially exposing sensitive data to foreign hackers. Clinton lied about it, claiming there were no classified communications. And her representative destroyed subpoenaed documents in the mess that were related to the Benghazi attacks.

A 2016 FBI investigation found Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling classified materials, but FBI Director Comey decided not to recommend criminal charges because he said Clinton meant no harm. (Years later, Comey would likewise escape criminal charges after the Inspector General found he, too, improperly handled sensitive and classified material in his effort to go after Donald Trump.)

The media? They yawned through much of that, framing the alleged crimes as technicalities rather than critical security breaches by people who should clearly know better.

The pattern is clear: Hegseth’s alleged lapses when it comes to Signal chats amount to molehills compared to the mountains of mismanagement by others. The Afghanistan withdrawal cost lives and emboldened adversaries. Austin’s hospital secrecy disrupted the chain of command. Benghazi exposed systemic failures and corruption. Clinton’s emails risked classified data. Yet comparatively, the media’s outrage meter barely flickered.

In fairness, Hegseth’s actions weren’t completely trivial. Sharing sensitive details on an unsecured app, especially from a secure source, is a legitimate concern. But the disproportionate fury suggests a double standard. Powerful interests are successfully using the news media to smear a Trump appointee that is uniquely dangerous to the defense establishment that opposes the Trump agenda.

If the media applied the same scrutiny to Biden’s team, we’d have seen Austin’s resignation, Biden Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s demotion, a reckoning for Afghanistan, and accountability after Benghazi.

Instead, Hegseth’s every move is a headline, while graver errors get a sympathetic nod.

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