Hegseth’s comments highlight the government’s reluctance to show the human costs of the war

Statements by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the American press emphasizes American casualties in the Iran war because they “want to make the president look bad” are a reminder of something that has persisted across many decades of conflict: stress and panic over news that reminds Americans of the human cost of war.

During his Pentagon briefing on the war on Wednesday, Hegseth criticized “fake news” while addressing the six US Army reservists killed in an Iranian attack on an operations center in Kuwait.

He watches: Hegseth holds a press conference about developments in the war with Iran

“When a few drones go by or tragic things happen, it makes front-page news,” Hegseth said. “I get it. The press just wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the truth. The terms of this war will be determined by us at every step.”

White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt doubled down when asked about CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins’ comments at her press conference later. “You take everything this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad,” Leavitt said. “This is an objective fact.”

Memories of night after night of graphic images broadcast into homes through a then-recent invention—the television—were difficult to shake for those who lived through the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Many believe that the cumulative effect of seeing that suffering night after night has turned Americans from supporters to skeptics.

Such vivid, intimate scenes of military action by Americans have not been seen to this extent since, a legacy that remains with the war that President Donald Trump and Hegseth now wage on behalf of the United States.

“For many presidents, the lesson seems to be: Don’t let the realities of war into people’s living rooms if you can help it,” said Timothy Naftali, a senior scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Coverage of war – and access to it – has changed.

Today, the images the public sees of war can resemble a video game — explosions seen lighting up the sky in the distance — while making the pain even more personal.

Generations ago during World War II, journalists were integrated into the military, and many became household names — reporters Ernie Pyle and Walter Cronkite, photographers Robert Capa and Margaret Bourke White. But those were the days before television.

Vietnam was arguably the most accessible American war for journalists. Journalists stationed in the country sent a steady stream of death and destruction.

Cronkite, then anchor of the most popular evening news program in the United States on CBS, reported from Vietnam in 1968 and concluded that the only rational way out was a negotiated peace. President Lyndon Johnson said: “If you lose Cronkite, you lose Middle America.”

During the Gulf War in 1991, President George H.W. Bush was outraged by split-screen television images that showed the coffins of U.S. military service members being returned to the United States, while he joked with reporters about another topic at the White House, apparently unaware of the timing. The Pentagon banned coverage of these celebrations, saying this was intended to protect the privacy of family members of the dead, although critics said the aim was to avoid showing photos of the coffins.

This ban, with some exceptions, remained in place until President Barack Obama lifted it in 2009.

Reporters who get close to the battlefield in the US military’s wars in the 2000s are likely to have their movements restricted, if they are allowed to do so at all. Jessica Donati, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Reuters who has covered the war in Afghanistan, wrote for the Modern War Institute in 2021 that “it is easier these days for journalists in Afghanistan to integrate with the Taliban than it is with the US military.”

The reporting of victims predates the Trump presidency

The nature of this war—which was fought thousands of miles from the American homeland and had not yet reached the ground in Iran—limited the number of American casualties and thus made it more newsworthy. Several journalists noted that reporting on military casualties predates Trump’s presidency. CNN’s Jake Tapper said Hegseth’s statement “is a distorted way of looking at the world.” “Unhistorical.”

“The media covers fallen service members because they made the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” he said. “It’s an honor. It’s an honor.”

There was relatively little ground coverage in Iran. A CNN team led by Fredrik Pleitgen on Thursday became the first journalist from a US-based television network to enter the country, spending the day racing across the country to Tehran.

Dan Lamothe, a military affairs correspondent for The Washington Post, posted on social media that Hegseth’s comments would not prevent him from continuing to cover war casualties — as has happened under presidents of both major political parties.

“These efforts were not always ideal,” Lamothe wrote. “But they highlighted the sacrifices made by American military service members and their families, and the shortcomings that sometimes allowed these deaths to occur. We will continue to do so. It is extremely important that we stop.”

When Robert H. Reid was a senior editor at Stars and Stripes between 2014 and 2025, he found that the paper’s audiences, especially military service members, wanted more than just raw numbers when Americans were killed in military action. He said they wanted to know details about the lives of the people who served — where they grew up, who they left behind, and what their passions were.

In 10 or 20 years, many of these people will be forgotten by everyone except those who loved them. For what they did for their country, they deserve to be recognized for their lives, said Reid, who has worked as an international correspondent for the Associated Press for most of his career.

“The public should know that war is not a video game,” Naftali said. “It affects people.”