COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 08/01/2019
Sam Thielman
PETE HEGSETH, THE FOX NEWS PERSONALITY, Iraq War veteran, and one-time guard at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, often receives compliments for his commentary on Fox & Friends, the popular morning show Hegseth frequently guest-hosts, from President Trump.
Hegseth was briefly considered by Trump to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. Instead he has used his platform on the president’s favorite show—and access to the man himself—to run the kind of journalistic campaign that used, more usually, to be pointed at water contamination in Flint, Michigan or public corruption in Bell, California.