Pete Hegseth, The Washington Post, and the “Kill Them All” Smear
Every Friday, the White House releases its Media Offender of the Week. It is a running list of which outlet went the extra mile to bend a story so far out of shape that it no longer resembles the truth. This week’s honoree is The Washington Post, and the reason is a front-page claim that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a commander to kill them all during an anti-terrorist operation in the Caribbean.
The Washington Post Builds a Scandal from Thin Air
The article relied on two unnamed sources. Without audio. No transcript. And apparently, no documentation. Just the kind of whisper campaign that has become a specialty at The Washington Post. Reporters Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima framed the mission as a free-for-all event where Hegseth supposedly threw out the laws of armed conflict and told a Joint Special Operations commander to wipe out everyone on board a narco terrorist vessel.
THE OFFENSE
The Washington Post’s Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima published an article from two unnamed sources claiming Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a Joint Special Operations commander to “kill everybody” during an anti-terrorist operation in the Caribbean Sea.
THE TRUTH
The Department of War killed 11 narco-terrorists in a coordinated strike designed to “kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people.” This attack was the first in a series of lethal kinetic strikes against Designated Terrorist Organizations. The Washington Post published this unsubstantiated claim in an attempt to discredit the United States’ warfighters and inflame anti-American sentiment. – The White House
The Lie Falls Apart Under Actual Evidence
The Media Offender tracker classified the story as a lie, malpractice, and an omission of context. The Department of War responded with the actual facts. Eleven narco terrorists were killed in a coordinated strike against a Designated Terrorist Organization. The objective was clear. The operation was lawful. The targets were not fishermen or civilians. They were narco terrorists responsible for poisoning Americans. The Washington Post turned a precision mission into a sensational accusation to create a scandal.
The Washington Post’s “report” last week was a complete, blatant lie.
They owe an apology to @SecWar, Admiral Bradley, and all of our men and women in uniform who are keeping our country safe from drug cartels. pic.twitter.com/ZKwScJQZM9
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) December 5, 2025
Even The New York Times reported that Hegseth authorized lethal action but did not order the killing of survivors. When The New York Times ends up correcting the narrative The Washington Post tried to sell, you know the story is political.
This Was Not a Mistake. It Was a Choice.
This is why the Media Offender system exists. It is not about punishing the free press. It is about calling out the outlets that have turned political smear into a newsroom standard. The Washington Post did not stumble into this mistake. It made a choice. The choice was anonymous sources over verified facts. And innuendo over evidence and framed a counterterror operation as a war crime because the target of the narrative was a Trump official.
The warfighters who carried out the strike followed the rules of engagement and acted under lawful orders. They coordinated with intelligence assets and went after a known narco terrorist network. The Washington Post stripped all of that context away, leaving readers with an emotional punchline instead of the truth. “Kill them all” became the entire story, even though it was never said in the way the article implied.
Saying shame on the Washington Post is an understatement.
The Goal Was a Scandal, Not the Truth
This is what malpractice looks like. The goal was not clarity. The goal was outrage. It was an attempt to paint Hegseth as reckless, unstable, and willing to ignore moral and legal boundaries. The accusation fit a political narrative, so the Post printed it.
The problem is that the narrative is false.
BREAKING – Pete Hegseth and Admiral Bradley are now being encouraged to pursue defamation charges against the Washington Post after the NYT revealed it blatantly lied about them ordering survivors to be killed, pushing Democrats to slander them as committing “war crimes.” pic.twitter.com/288gGEYkpe
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) December 2, 2025
Besides, who is out here rooting for boats full of cartel drugs to reach American cities?
The Post Wanted a Scandal. It Got Exposed.
The Media Offender tracker highlights this kind of behavior because it has become routine. Reporters publish dramatic claims from unnamed sources and treat them as fact. Instead of doing their job and reporting the facts, they try to compete with online social media influencers.
If the claim damages a conservative, the headline grows louder. If the claim turns out to be wrong, the correction arrives later and softer. The public remembers the lie. The damage is done. The cycle repeats.
The Post wanted a scandal. It got a spotlight instead. The White House posted the outlet’s reporting beside the actual facts. It exposed the omissions and the framing, as well as the lack of evidence. When the tracker assigned the label of lie, malpractice, and omission of context, it was not exaggerating. It was documenting.
Smearing Warfighters to Score Political Points
This Washington Post hit piece says more about the state of the media than it does about Pete Hegseth. The press used to view national security reporting as a responsibility. Today, it is a weapon. If the story can damage a political opponent, it will be published. If the tale undermines America’s warfighters, all the better. The Washington Post did not publish journalism. It published a political attack dressed up as reporting.
Hegseth has already responded. He called the accusation false and reminded the public that the purpose of the strike was to kill narco terrorists who are destroying lives inside the United States. That is the part The Washington Post left out. It treated the targets as victims and the terrorists as confused bystanders. The framing was backward because the goal was to inflame anti-American sentiment, not explain the mission.
The Media Offender list exists for moments like this. It forces accountability on institutions that long ago stopped policing themselves. When legacy media refuses to correct its own failures, someone else will do it for them. This week, it was The Washington Post’s turn on the wall.
And if the pattern holds, it will not be the last.
This story reminds me of the quote, “Discipline yourself, and others won’t need to.” — John Wooden
Feature Image: U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons/The Washington Post/Matt Schwartz/Flickr/License CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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