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EXCLUSIVE: Emails, Phone Logs Reveal How Botched Hegseth West Point Story Imploded

After a West Point spokesperson falsely claimed that @PeteHegseth had not applied or been accepted to the school, ProPublica reached out to Hegseth’s lawyer, asserting that the Secretary of… pic.twitter.com/bN9ahCwC1p

— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) December 12, 2024

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“Reporters do their job by asking tough questions to people in power, which is exactly what happened here. Responsible news organizations only publish what they can verify, which is why we didn’t publish a story once Mr. Hegseth provided documentation that corrected the statements from West Point,” a ProPublica spokesperson told the Caller.

The Caller followed up to ask if ProPublica did any additional work to verify their story beyond taking two Army public information officers at face value. The spokesperson said the first statement “speaks for itself” and they have no further comment.

Ed: Res ipsa loquitur indeed, but not in the way that ProPublica imagines. That email from their reporter clearly demonstrated bias and malice, and probably was designed to bait Hegseth’s team into not saying anything at all. That wasn’t a reportorial inquiry, but a crank complaint from an activist org. And that description fits ProPublica more and more these days.

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This is why @Politico‘s brand is so broken on the right. One of its lead reporters pretends not to understand what ProPublica tried to do –take down Pete Hegseth– and that their agenda “journalism” was stopped not by West Point, which misled them, but by Team Hegseth. That’s… https://t.co/nVNrDiJ6V7

— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) December 12, 2024

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Republican senator Tom Cotton, an army veteran, accused the academy of “feeding lies to Left-wing reporters about President Trump’s nominees”.

“West Point needs to thoroughly investigate this egregiously bad judgement and potential violation of the Privacy Act immediately,” he wrote on social media.

Ed: We won’t get one until Hegseth takes over the DoD — and then the Protection Racket Media will paint it as a vendetta against journalists. Bank on it.

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So there’s one key thing about the Hegseth/ProPublica story that illustrates why journalism is cratering.

For years, the media has treated bureaucratic and government sources as though they’re neutral and infallible.

Everyone knows that couldn’t be further from the truth.

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) December 12, 2024

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The organization does indeed deserve praise for its dogged reporting. Ultimately, ProPublica didn’t fall for the lie, and they didn’t repeat it. Great.

But here’s my question: Why not publish the story anyway? To be clear, the story is not that Hegseth lied about getting into West Point—the story is that West Point lied (or was at least mistaken) about Hegseth not getting into West Point.

If ProPublica published that story, then the outlet could have taken a real victory lap: They tracked down the truth of a rumor about Hegseth’s record and found out it wasn’t true, despite a prestigious educational institution actively misleading them. Isn’t that a story? Or is the story only important if it’s damaging to Hegseth?

Ed: To ask this question is to answer it, no? That’s exactly what ProPublica wanted, which is why they didn’t run the “West Point lied” story. To Mark Hemingway’s point, ProPublica wants to cultivate bureaucratic sources to pass along gossip or worse to make their political opponents look bad. 

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ProPublica is lucky Hegseth got in front of this. I’d have been tempted to let them run the story, and *then* provide the evidence that the story is false. Especially with the 1 hour deadline. https://t.co/qSYetQd0qJ

— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) December 12, 2024

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A botched smear of Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth just further exposed the rank partisanship in both the military and the media.

And showed exactly why President-elect Donald Trump needs a reformer like Hegseth running the Pentagon. …

The longer the Hegseth nomination fight goes on, the more obvious the need for someone like Pete to start cleaning house at the Pentagon.

America needs a military devoted to doing its job, not to catering to the left.

Ed: ProPublica wants a military that caters to the Left on its social-justice priorities, and it’s willing to do anything to keep it that way. 

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The absolute goobers at ProPublica went full self-fart-sniffing yesterday about “what journalism looks” like, including GIVING YOUR SUBJECT A CHANCE TO RESPOND, only to have given Pete Hegseth a whopping *one hour* to respond to the claim he lied about getting into West Point pic.twitter.com/c72ZpGwJoI

— Dylan Housman (@Dylan_Housman) December 12, 2024

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Good heavens… After all, does ProPublica not have some skin in this game now that West Point’s lie and Hegseth’s good fortune of holding on to a 25-year-old document laid an egg all over ProPublica’s face? Why, a journalist interested in his credibility would be furious over this and, therefore, eager to dig into how it’s possible for the top military academy in the country to not only make this mistake but do so with “absolute 100%” certainty.

Could it be? *scratches beard*Is it possible? *puffs pipe thoughtfully* That perhaps! *removes sunglasses with practiced speed* …West Point deliberately lied to me to derail a presidential nominee who dares to be an outsider and reformer? *abruptly stands* What a story! What a scoop! *pounds desk so hard it knocks over photo of wife’s boyfriend* I will get to the bottom of this!

Except you know they won’t because ProPublica is staffed with godless, left-wing hacks.