Press photographers were reportedly barred from Pentagon press briefings after Pete Hegseth‘s staff became irked over unflattering photos of the defense secretary. The office of the notoriously vain Cabinet member — a former Fox News host who had a hair and makeup studio built in the Pentagon shortly after being confirmed — should probably have more important things on his mind, chiefly the war in Iran, and, perhaps, the elementary school there that the United States appears to have bombed.
According to a Wednesday report from The Washington Post, press pool photographers were banned from briefings on March 4 and March 10 after taking and publishing what sources described as “unflattering” images of Hegseth. The Post noted that the White House had declined to comment on the decision to exclude the photographers. The White House took exception, with Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly sharing an email reply to the publication with an off-topic quip over the newspaper’s recent layoff of more than 300 journalists, but no actual response to the Post’s question about the concern over Hegseth’s image.
The National Press Club responded on Wednesday, with President Mark Schoeff Jr. writing that the Pentagon’s decision “is deeply troubling and runs counter to the fundamental principles of transparency in a democratic society,” adding that “when the government decides which images the public is allowed to see, transparency is replaced by control.” PEN America also responded, calling the decision to bar photographers a “petty act of retaliation.”
Slop
Cmon man, dont insult my boy harvey like that.
But can we trust him?
I see where you’re going here but at least Dent had a good side to start with.
A pocket square without a tie? At least he buttoned his jacket while standing.
Streisand Effect is going to hit him like a bus.
It’d be nicer if a bus hit him like a bus.
Quit lookin so dumb than
What a weak, fragile man.
Boy, actually. At least thats his maturity level
For somebody acting as violently masculine as possible he sure is a pussy-ass bitch.
You may not like it, but this is what peak (toxic) male performance looks like.
I’m reminded of another observation I read online, some time ago. To paraphrase:
The biggest lie put forward by toxic masculinity is that anger is not an emotion.
So is literally everyone who makes gender their personality.
OK, but why male models?
What a loser.
Surely this is a fast track way of getting people to only take unflattering photos of you
Oh this is definitely getting Streisand Effected.
Every person on the internet that dislikes this guy should go back through past video footage and find frames that are completely unflattering and screenshot them, inundating the internet with more unflattering images.
There’s flattering photos of him?
More seriously, what photos is he even objecting to?
He does do a bit of air-dicking
spoiler
To be fair, this picture was on the front page here for 3 or 4 days and was clearly chosen in bad faith by the outlet because Nazi.
Not saying I don’t want him to walk in front of a moving bus, but everyone knows for a fact at this point that this administration will weaponize anything they can. The Irish Star should know better, but a Nazi salute that wasn’t gets clicks so here we are.
Hegseth is a brainless yapping chihuahua on a short leash, but he’s been in front of cameras a long time, so should know to control his gestures, unless it’s some Dr Stragelove repressed reflex.
And even if the photo doesn’t show an intentional Bellamy, it still reflects a truth about Hegseth’s inner state, and if he doesn’t like it, he can mumble our collective grundle.
Fascists being fascists, pictured as fascists. It isn’t a bad picture if it tells the story right. But I see your point. I’m just not sure if it’s right to give in and be nice just because the far right likes to control the narrative. We should call their bullshit for what it is.
Edit: Someone was a jerk about writing errors, so i tried to fix them. Thank you fellow human for calling me out. I am a better person now and the world got a little bit brighter.
You might have a point. Personally I go out of my way to make sure that people think I’m arguing in good faith. I think the absolute worst thing is to give someone, especially someone who is one the fence, any reason to think I’m just like the people he’s moving away from. Some of them have been told that everything not originating from Trump-approved media is Fake News, and this picture of Hegseth is definitely fake news.
The weird thing is they weren’t even bad pictures of him. Like, he looks like a douchebag who would use terms like ‘warfighter’ instead of just saying soldier, but the photos were just him. It’s not like the Vanity Fair photos that purposefully focused on the lip injection wounds, etc.
It’s not about the pictures. I honestly think this is just an excuse to get rid of journalists, and a method for hammering home the point that “journalists bad. news fake.” I’m not even sure he’s actually seen the pictures I question.
With that said, I wouldn’t put it past him to actually be so vain that it is really about the pictures. However I think it’s more likely that he would have done something like this anyway, and just picked an excuse.
I think it’s a form of loyalty test for them for sure, but also I really do think it comes it down to him being that vain. One of the first things he did after confirmation was have a makeup studio installed. Guarantee an hour or more of his day is spent in front of a mirror, every day.
Armchair psychologist: Things aren’t going as planned in Iran, and he feels like he looks like a fool for it, so he’s lashing out and attacking the media for making him look bad.
Guarantee an hour or more of his day is spent in front of a mirror, every day.
Not surprising, considering his previous job was a talking head on Fox or something like that. Which, in what’s left of Trump’s mind, makes him totally qualified to be the Secretary of Defense.
I see a lot of potential here for the internet to have fun with
