{"id":207944,"date":"2026-04-17T05:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/hegseth-attacks-unpatriotic-media-and-compares-reporters-to-jewish-biblical-group-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:50:21","slug":"hegseth-attacks-unpatriotic-media-and-compares-reporters-to-jewish-biblical-group-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/hegseth-attacks-unpatriotic-media-and-compares-reporters-to-jewish-biblical-group-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth attacks 'unpatriotic' media and compares reporters to Jewish biblical group – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth escalated his attacks on the media Thursday, comparing reporters covering the Iran war to the Pharisees, the biblical Jewish group that opposed Jesus.
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The comments came at a Pentagon press briefing<\/a> in which Hegseth first described the American media as \u201cincredibly unpatriotic.\u201d
\u201cI just can\u2019t help but notice the endless stream of garbage, the relentlessly negative coverage you cannot resist peddling, despite the historic and important success of this effort and the success of our troops,\u201d Hegseth said, referring to the Iran war.
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on,\u201d he added.
Since the fighting began in late February<\/a>, Hegseth, who is Christian, has frequently used religious rhetoric at news conferences and attacked the media over its coverage. But he went further Thursday by doing so with religious overtones.
Hegseth said he was at church on Sunday when his pastor read a Bible passage that described Jesus healing a man in front of the Pharisees, \u201cthe so-called and self-appointed elites of their time.\u201d
\u201cOur press are just like these Pharisees \u2014 not all of you, not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press. Your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors,\u201d he said.
Hegseth added: \u201cThe Pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation, only looking for the negative. The hardened hearts of our press are calibrated only to impugn. I would ask you to open your eyes to the goodness, the historic success of our troops, the courage of this president.\u201d
Hegseth was a member of the media \u2014 a Fox News host<\/a> \u2014 before President Donald Trump tapped him to lead the Defense Department. Like some other members of the Trump administration, his use of Christian rhetoric in public statements is a departure from the language used by his predecessors.
Bill Grueskin, a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, said Hegseth\u2019s latest attacks on the press revealed a misunderstanding of the role of the media in the U.S.
\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that a Fox News host who has done so little actual reporting in his career would fail to understand how journalists do their jobs,\u201d Grueskin said. \u201cBut Hegseth gives it away when he says, \u2018Sometimes it\u2019s hard to figure out what side some of you are actually on.\u2019\u201d
\u201cIdeally, reporters are on the side of the truth and see their role as providing the most accurate, complete and transparent account of what\u2019s happening on the ground,\u201d added Grueskin, a former senior editor at the Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News. \u201cThat is especially difficult given that Hegseth himself has limited journalists\u2019 access at the Pentagon and that it\u2019s almost impossible for U.S. reporters to work inside Iran\u2019s borders.\u201d
Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor, also criticized Hegseth\u2019s remarks.
\u201cAs a Christian how dare you use religion to shame those who simply ask questions,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rich Schapiro is a reporter with the NBC News national security unit.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth escalated his attacks on the media Thursday, comparing reporters covering the Iran war to the Pharisees, the biblical Jewish group that opposed Jesus.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The comments came at a Pentagon press […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-207944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}