‘Hegseth is Embarrassed!’ Fox News Invites Ex-CNN Correspondent On to Torch Defense Secretary’s Crackdown on Press at the Pentagon
Fox News invited a longtime CNN Pentagon correspondent on its air Sunday — who proceeded to rip Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for restricting press access to his department.
In an interview on Fox’s MediaBuzz, Barbara Starr — who spent more than two decades covering the Pentagon for CNN — condemned the defense secretary for limiting the ability of journalists to access various parts of the Pentagon without being accompanied by an escort. Starr, who denounced the move in a Substack column, argued that the restrictions will dramatically impact the ability of reporters to do their jobs.
“You posted this about Pete Hegseth on your Substack — saying you feel ‘tremendous sadness’ at the changes he’s made,” Fox News host Howard Kurtz said to Starr.
“I do,” Starr said. “It’s completely unnecessary. Reporters for decades have operated inside the Pentagon, moving through the hallways, and of course they talk to sources. Hegseth is worried that it is unauthorized information. That’s conversation. That’s reporting.”
“But the suggestion here is that reporters — of which you were one for decades — are looking to vacuum up secret or classified documents by walking in those halls,” Kurtz replied.
“Impossible to do,” Starr said. “Reporters have no access to classified areas. Those are locked. I’m not aware of any instance in which a reporter has accessed classified information in the Pentagon by moving through the hallways and going into classified areas.”
Starr argued that Hegseth’s manuevers are driven by mistakes he’s made in letting information get out — most notably in the infamous Signal chat published by The Atlantic.
“Hegseth is embarrassed!” Starr said. “He’s embarrassed by certain events. He’s embarrassed by so much exposure to the information — classified by all accounts — that he posted on Signalgate about that air attack in Yemen. He’s embarrassed that information came out that he was gonna meet with Elon Musk and brief him on China. Even today, as you and I sit here and talk, Ukrainians are bombing Russian strategic bombers deep inside Russia could be a response by Putin. Maybe the defense secretary wants to think — it’s up to him — about spending more time thinking about these national security matters than the PR structure, if you will, of his press operation.”
Kurtz noted that his team asked for a response from the Pentagon, but never heard back.
“[Hegseth] has also held the grand total of one news conference since taking over at DoD,” Kurtz added. “Does that matter?”
“It matters,” Starr said. She added, “The U.S. Military swears an oath to defend the Constitution, the First Amendment. That includes nothing to abridge freedom of the press. So this is a life and death issue for the U. S. Forces. And that makes it a life-and-death issue for media, which often accompanies them. This is about the Constitutional requirement to maintain a free press in this country. That is what America’s all about.”
Kurtz closed out the segment by noting the firing of pro-Trump reporter Gabrielle Cuccia — who says she was axed from right-wing network OAN after she criticized Hegseth’s press restriction.
“Criticism coming from many quarters,” Kurtz said.
Watch above, via Fox News.
