A tactic known as clickbait headlines claims that so-and-so destroyed or devastated or crushed their ideological opponent with a single, unanswerable question. The actual video rarely supports the claim made by the headline.
Such was the case with the Daily Mail who said Hegseth was "rattled" by one of the rag's reporter's question. The reporter pointed out Hegseth’s claims that the U.S. military has aerial and naval superiority over Iran yet there seems to be some inaction on the U.S.’s part.
“We're not escorting ships to the Strait of Hormuz. Why? How did you not plan for this?” the reporter asked.
Hegseth responded that they have planned for it and recognize it.
“Because ultimately we want to do it, sequentially, in a way that makes the most sense for what we want to achieve and ensure that we're sending the right signals to the world when we do so,” Hegseth answered.
The same clip posted by Daily Mail World on YouTube claims that Hegseth dodged the question.
Curtis Houck of Media Research Center says it's nearly impossible for Hegseth not to have been prepared for the question.
“I think that's a purposeful misreading of the situation. The idea that the Secretary wasn't anticipating questions about the Strait of Hormuz is preposterous,” Houck says.
He informs one of the things that the mainstream media is upset about is that they're not given private, often classified information about the war.
“The media believes that we have to be hand-in-glove with you, that you have to tell us literally everything about how we came to this conclusion immediately,” Houck comments.
But mostly, he says, the scandalous headlines are meant to put President Donald Trump and in this case his Secretary of War, in a bad light.
“There's a difference between scrutiny and doomcasting — purposefully negative news poisoning the well so that, inevitably, if things don't go well, you can then say, basically, ‘we told you so’,” Houck says.
