‘That’s Journalism’: ProPublica Editor Hits Back at Pete Hegseth’s Preemptive Jab Over Non-Existent Story
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Jesse Eisinger, a senior editor and reporter at ProPublica, hit back at President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon on Wednesday after Pete Hegseth attacked the news organization for inquiring about his acceptance to West Point.
Hegseth, a former Fox News morning show host and pro-MAGA culture warrior, wrote on X, “We understand that ProPublica (the Left Wing hack group) is planning to publish a knowingly false report that I was not accepted to West Point in 1999.”
“Here’s my letter of acceptance signed by West Point Superintendent, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, US Army,” Hegseth added and included two images that showed both his letter of acceptance from 1999 and his offer of admission.
Eisinger shared Hegseth’s attack on his publication and explained the back story. “Here’s a story about how journalism works. Spoiler Alert: This is how we decide *not* to publish,” Eisinger began in a thread, adding:
We were recently looking at Pete Hegesth’s different statements over the years about West Point, where he has said he was admitted.
First stop: West Point.2/ We contacted the West Point Public Affairs Office.
The first spokesperson wrote on the record: “According to the admissions office – Hegseth had not applied for admission to the U.S. Military Academy.”
3/ We called back to ask if that meant that Hegseth had never been admitted and a second spokesperson told us on the record:“Absolutely 100%. Because he never opened a file.”
4/Now we thought we had the makings of a significant story.
But the first rule of good journalism is: No Surprises.
You must give the subject of a potential story a fair chance to respond to all of the salient facts in the story.
5/Why do we do this? We want to make sure what we have is correct.
We care about accuracy. We aim to get both specific facts & the larger picture right. The essential part of this is contacting subjects & being intellectually honest enough to change your mind & drop a story.
6/ One of the reporters called Hegseth’s lawyer.
The attorney made a lot of angry legal threats to him, but didn’t deny the facts.
We urged him to contact his client to make sure Hegseth understood what we were planning to write.
7/ A second Hegseth PR person then called. He asserted Hegseth still had his letter of acceptance to West Point.
We asked him to send it to us, but he just hung up.
8/ That gave us pause. But we had to on-the-record info from the academy itself.
We went back to West Point.
We also sent that Hegseth PR person a screenshot of a West Point email telling us Hegseth hadn’t been admitted.
9/ He responded with an image of the acceptance letter.
10/ We went back to West Point. They apologized.
11/ So: No, we are not publishing a story.
This is how journalism is supposed to work. Hear something. Check something. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as many times as needed.
The end.
Hegseth’s post quickly went viral among MAGAworld influencers. “The Fake News is the enemy of the people!” wrote Donald Trump, Jr. as he shared the post.
Hegseth continues to fight to be confirmed amid several scandals, including a sexual assault allegation and whispers about a drinking problem.
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