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CNN’s chief executive Mark Thompson defended his network on Friday after a broadside from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who earlier in the day lashed out over its reporting during a Pentagon briefing on operations in Iran.
Speaking alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, Hegseth opened the briefing with an attack on media coverage of the war, singling out CNN’s reporting and accusing the outlet of pushing misleading narratives about the administration’s handling of the conflict.
Without naming the defense secretary, Thompson backed his network’s reporting and warned its journalists would not be put off by “political threats or insults.”
“We stand by our journalism,” the statement said. “Politicians have an obvious motive for claiming that journalism which raises questions about their decisions is false. At CNN our only interest is in telling the truth to our audiences in the U.S. and around the world and no amount of political threats or insults is going to change that.”
During the briefing, Hegseth highlighted CNN and dismissed a report by the network suggesting the Trump administration underestimated the war’s impact on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “patently ridiculous” and adding: “It’s a fundamentally unserious report.”
He then took a swipe at the network’s leadership and potential sale to Paramount, telling reporters: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better!”
His criticism came as part of a wider criticism of media narrative framing he argued overstated the threat posed by Iran.
“People look up at the TV and they see banners. They see headlines. I used to be in that business. And I know that everything is written intentionally,” Hegseth told reporters.
Watch above via CNN.
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