What the Media Missed: Where's Pete Hegseth hiding?
New year, new format!
When I kicked off this weekly series in November, I wanted to cast a critical eye on how cable news networks’ corporate decisions were shaping the coverage millions of Americans consumed every day. Since then, this Monday report has grown into something more than that. Powered by your feedback and the incredible reporting done right here on Daily Kos, this column also became a commentary on what the legacy media didn’t cover.
I love this broader approach because I believe that if the media is going to stand up to the difficult years ahead, we need to offer both pointed criticism and realistic solutions. That’s something I see happening every day on Daily Kos, and part of my new approach to this column will be ensuring those impactful stories are amplified to as many readers as possible.
Obviously, we’re still gonna dunk on the flunkies over in the corporate media. Let’s dive in.
The invisible Pete Hegseth
Sit through five combined hours of Sunday morning cable news shows (like I did) and you’ll quickly realize there’s something missing. From “Fox & Friends” to “Meet the Press” and “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” absolutely no one is talking about Pete Hegseth anymore. Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, has been a ghost since damaging stories about his workplace and personal conduct hit the headlines early last month.
Cable news outlets may not be curious about Hegseth’s vanishing act, but Daily Kos’ own Oliver Willis sure is. In a great New Year’s Eve piece, Willis cast light on the Trump campaign’s aggressive effort to silence their own nominees. That includes declining media interview requests and avoiding all social media ahead of confirmation hearings later this month.
That’s a rule made especially for Hegseth, who just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. “Hegseth has taken to social media to complain about “anti-Christian bigotry” in the media, the “lying press” and the “Left Wing hack group” ProPublica,” Willis writes. No wonder Trump enforcer Susie Wiles is ordering nominees to clam up. But that also means the press won’t have any opportunity to get clear answers from Hegseth about his history of bizarre Jan. 6 conspiracy theories or his alleged sexual assault.
All that cable news silence has been a huge benefit for Hegseth. Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly told Trump recently that he believes Hegseth has the votes needed to be confirmed as defense secretary. That certainly wasn’t the case when Hegseth was the center of media attention a month ago. Seems Hegseth’s numbers improved as he faded from Americans’ short-term memory, and now the Republicans who once planned to oppose him are falling in line with Trump’s wishes.
With just eight days until Hegseth faces Senate confirmation hearings, corporate media outlets have decided to avert their eyes. The result will be a disaster for American national security, enabled by corporate media silence.
Democrats in array
Democrats are already invisible on cable news, an early victim of the media’s bottomless appetite for sound bites from The Trump Show. But the party’s struggle to capture headlines isn’t slowing their effort to build a bench of top-tier candidates for 2026.
Daily Kos’s Emily Singer follows the prominent House Majority PAC as they announce their top congressional district targets for 2026—and begin the crucial process of recruiting skilled candidates. The super PAC notes that this is the earliest they’ve ever begun their candidate recruitment process, driven by the fact that just three seats hold the balance of power in the House. For congressional Democrats, the power to throw the brakes on Trump’s agenda is tantalizingly close and yet impossibly far away.
House Majority PAC is eyeing key races in Colorado, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Nebraska, where Republican candidates won by narrow margins or in areas normally carried by Democrats. Those efforts should be bolstered by whoever emerges as the DNC’s next chair—another topic that most cable outlets still refuse to cover.
So far only one major media voice has dedicated serious time to covering Democrats’ search for a new party leader: “The Daily Show” host and avowed political nerd Jon Stewart. Daily Kos’ Walter Einenkel covered Stewart’s thoughtful conversation with DNC chair candidate Ben Wikler last month, and Stewart has mentioned the chair race in the weeks since. That’s more than can be said for most of cable news, where the topic never merited much interest.
The Democratic Party’s restructuring will not be televised, mostly because no one finds it very interesting. That may end up being a hidden blessing for Democrats, who will be able to build their 2026 campaign apparatus away from the glare of the headlines. Top Democrats have decided that it’s worth it to lose short-term media attention in order to mend the party’s election year wounds in private. Are they right?
Reach out!
Keep the conversation going all week by sharing stories you think the media missed with me at @themaxburns on Bluesky! And remember: If you’re tuned to cable news, you aren’t even getting half of the story.
Until next week, keep your eyes peeled and stay inquisitive, friends.