OAN's Pentagon reporter learns the limits of expressing her own opinion
Assigned to cover the Pentagon for the conservative outlet One America News Network, Gabrielle Cuccia didn't pretend to be an unbiased reporter. She describes herself as 'a MAGA girl' who is unapologetically defiant in her support of President Donald Trump.
Yet days after publicly criticizing a Trump appointee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Cuccia found herself out of a job.
In taking to Substack last week to express a personal opinion about a figure she covers, Cuccia did something that would be frowned upon in many legacy newsrooms. The message that she was sent, however, is most likely to resound in places where opinion is fine — but only a certain variety.
Cuccia's lengthy Substack post, 'The Secretary of Defense-ive,' was posted three days after Hegseth issued new rules that banned reporters from accessing large areas of the Pentagon without being watched by his minders.
She criticized him for limiting freedom of movement in the name of national security.
Cuccia praises responsible Pentagon reporters
'The Pentagon wants to paint a picture that journalists are freely roaming classified spaces, sneaking into (secure areas), and leaking top-secret information,' she wrote. 'And that is simply not true. There are security cameras everywhere, protocols in place and quite frankly, it would be painfully obvious if a reporter was in a space they didn't belong.'
Cuccia said the real leaks from the Pentagon have come from Hegseth's own team and other senior officials. Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, was embarrassed in March when The Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief was mistakenly included in a Signal chat in which the defense secretary discussed upcoming military strikes.
She criticized Hegseth for not yet holding a media briefing at the Pentagon.
'The Commander-in-Chief welcomes the hard questions ... and yes, even the dumb ones,' she wrote. 'Why won't the Secretary of Defense do the same?'
Three days after her Memorial Day Substack post, Cuccia said her Pentagon access badge was revoked. 'By Friday," she said, 'I was out of a job.'
The Defense Department did not pull Cuccia's credentials, according to a Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues. Cuccia said OAN told her the Substack piece had been 'put on their radar,' but she wouldn't say by who. She wouldn't speak further about what her employer told her, and OAN president Charles Herring told The Associated Press that it does not discuss personnel issues.
'When a reporter asks inconvenient questions about government overreach, the response should be accountability — not silence, and certainly not separation,' Cuccia said.
Traditionally, the legacy media does not want its journalists expressing opinions about people they cover, since it calls into doubt their ability to report without bias. But exceptions are often made in cases where media access is at issue, said Tom Rosenstiel, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland.
The New York Times, for example, institutionally called upon Joe Biden to meet more often with journalists when he was president. The Pentagon Press Association said Hegseth's restrictions were a direct assault on the freedom of the press.
Making no secret of allegiance to Trump
One America News Network makes no secret of its allegiance to Trump. When Matt Gaetz's nomination as Trump's attorney general fell apart following the election, OAN quickly signed him up as a contributor. OAN faced lawsuits — and negotiated settlements — for its promotion of Trump's false theories that he did not lose the 2020 election.
When Hegseth earlier this year evicted several news organizations from their Pentagon workspaces and gave more room to friendly outlets, Cuccia was assigned space formerly held by NBC News. Before Hegseth aide Sean Parnell's only media briefing, Cuccia said Hegseth's team reached out to her in advance to find out what questions she wanted to ask, something that would never be done for most media outlets.
If OAN is responsible for removing Cuccia, it's a 'take no quarter position,' Rosenstiel said. 'There is no room, if you're on the team, to say anything that is negative.'
He said he'd be interested to see if any representatives from pro-Trump media outlets defend her. 'Are they silent, or do they rally to her in any way?' he asked. Trump, in the past, has frequently criticized Fox News Channel for saying anything on the air that he deemed negative.
Part of Cuccia's Substack post sounded almost prescient about what might happen to her, when she reminisced about the energy of the early Make America Great Again movement. Questioning government then, she noted, was a point of pride.
'Somewhere along the way, we as a collective decided — if anyone ever questioned a policy or person within the MAGA movement — that they weren't MAGA enough," she wrote. "That they were deep state, that they couldn't be trusted, that they didn't love America as much as we do and that ... to put it bluntly, they sucked.'
___
AP correspondent Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social
David Bauder, The Associated Press
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
25 minutes ago
- USA Today
Cheap, fast and armed: U.S. looks to thwart Ukraine-style drone swarms
Cheap, fast and armed: U.S. looks to thwart Ukraine-style drone swarms Ukraine recently used inexpensive drones to inflict serious damage to Russia's strategic bomber fleet in an audacious attack. Show Caption Hide Caption Ukrainian drone attack hits Russian air force bases A large scale Ukrainian drone attack hit multiple Russian air force bases, significantly setting Russia back. A senior U.S. military official said it was only a matter of time before drones were used in a "mass casualty event" in the U.S. Last year, the military tallied 350 drone incursions on domestic bases. Most were thought to be the work of hobbyists who strayed into restricted airspace. WASHINGTON − Cheap weaponized drones pose a threat to military bases and civilians, leading a senior military official to predict they'll be used soon to inflict a 'mass-casualty event.' Ukraine underscored the risk to advanced military powers on June 1 when its inexpensive drones damaged or destroyed strategic warplanes across Russia. U.S. military bases, and targets like major sports events, share similar vulnerabilities, officials say. Neither the Pentagon, nor the militaries of other developed countries, has figured out how to defend against swarms of small drones packed with explosives, according to the military official, who has been briefed on counter-drone efforts but was not authorized to speak publicly. More: Russia's 'Pearl Harbor': What to know about Ukraine's audacious drone strike We're not even close, the official said. No one is. The threat from drones to military isn't just overseas. Last year, the military tallied 350 drone incursions on domestic bases, according to U.S. Northern Command. Most of those were probably hobbyists who strayed into restricted airspace, the defense official said. Some, however, could have been from foreign adversaries spying on the military. And some wonder if they could have carried explosives. More: Ukraine drone attack shows familiar-looking drones can be terrifying weapons How does the Pentagon, which spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on defense, have such a vulnerability? What's being done to address it, and how future of drone warfare plays out gains greater and greater urgency for lawmakers and military planners as technology improves almost daily. For the better part of two decades, the Pentagon had unmatched superiority in drone technology. Early in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Predator and later Reaper drones armed with Hellfire missiles allowed pilots in dark bases in the Nevada desert to attack militant targets in the Middle East. A Reaper costs about $28 million, according to the Congressional Research Service. For a fraction of that cost today, a small drone can be weaponized and flown to its target and deliver devastating effects, too. 'At a cost of a mere tens of thousands of dollars, Ukraine inflicted billions in damage, potentially setting back Russia's bomber capabilities for years,' Army Secretary Dan Driscoll testified to Congress this week. 'The world saw in near-real time how readily available technology can disrupt established power dynamics.' Ukraine has been at the forefront of militarized drone development. By necessity, it needs a cheap alternative to thwart Russia, a country with a far larger military force that has advantages in conventional weapons like warplanes, tanks and artillery. Ukraine deployed first-person view, or FPV drones, in its attack on the Russian airfields. FPV drones allow a pilot with a headset to steer the aircraft to its target. That technology has proliferated and gotten relatively cheap in recent years. You can buy an FPV drone on Amazon for under $700. The Ukrainian military has refined technology for small drones and improves nearly weekly to offset Russian countermeasures, the defense official said. Fatal attack The Pentagon is painfully aware of the threat. In January 2024 militants in Jordan launched a drone attack on an outpost in the desert as soldiers slept in their quarters. Three died when the drone slammed into their building. Realizing the urgency of the threat, the Pentagon began funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into counter-drone weaponry. That includes electronic jamming devices that can sever the link between the operator and the drone, rendering it harmless. Small missiles can be fired at drones at a distance, and shotgun-type weapons can be used for those closer in, the official said. Even nets can be used to snag drones in the air before they reach their target. Defending against a swarm of small drones is a tough problem, the official said. There's no simple solution. On Capitol Hill, Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, assured Army officials that Congress is prepared to spend billions on drone defense. Before senators and Army officials retreated to discuss the drone threat in secret, Driscoll raised another alarm about the threat. 'We are not doing enough,' he said. 'The current status quo is not sufficient.'
USA Today
25 minutes ago
- USA Today
I'm a gay man. Pride has always been special, but this year it's so much more.
I'm a gay man. Pride has always been special, but this year it's so much more. | Opinion Pride Month is more than just a time to wave rainbow flags, show off cute outfits and watch a drag show while eating chicken-on-a-stick. At its heart, pride is an event to gather with people who care. Show Caption Hide Caption Listen to Stonewall riot veterans recount the infamous police clash Veterans of the 1969 riot at The Stonewall Inn reflect on the infamous clash with police and why the fight for equality continues over trans rights. A couple of years back, I wrote a guest column in the Detroit Free Press about what can feel like insincere corporate support for pride – how it can be a performative act to maximize profit, that at its worst erodes the authentic queer experience, and at its best gives us a surface level of seen-ness, a mainstream support that often feels as thin as a dollar bill. Since then, things have only gotten more worrisome for queer folks in America and are downright terrifying for our transgender siblings. Rights and respect for LGBTQ+ people had been moving forward for the past few decades, but now those rights are being peeled away. And the moment the political headwinds changed, support for LGBTQ+ Americans started to feel very flimsy. Pride has always had a special place in my heart, but this year I'm feeling it so much more. Opinion: A trans athlete won in California. Her peers cheered – and exposed the truth. I'm worried and exhausted. Can you feel it, too? Growing up, my parents and grandparents taught to me to believe in and to love America – a country, a place, a belief come to life – an idea that in execution is often severely flawed, but ultimately strives toward the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, be they an immigrant, gay, queer, women, men, trans, fat, thin, old, Black, Asian, disabled or able-bodied. But it seems our government, and as such, we the American people, are no longer striving – our country is feeling like a scarier, far less hopeful place. You can feel it, too, can't you? The exhausting weariness of trying to get by in a country where the truth, science and so many people matter far less than they did a few years ago; where the future for anyone who isn't a billionaire – and LBGTQ+ folks especially – grows darker and darker each day. Opinion: Hegseth stripping Harvey Milk's name off Navy ship is weak and insecure There are regular attacks on the middle and working classes through the increasing cost of living, cuts to Veterans Affairs, Medicaid and other health services and medical research. Attacks on trans and queer folks, and the executive orders policing the bodies of (mostly) women, transgender and nonbinary people seem to be the steps to a subjugation of queer people and, at some point in the not-so-distant future, of all women. Queer teen suicide ideation (already twice the rate of their straight-identifying counterparts) is up, along with the feeling that people just don't care about each other. And the odds of anything changing in the near term are down. Being an employed, White, gay, cisgender male with stable housing gives me some privilege, a bit of a shield against what's coming. But watching the erasure of trans folks, queer folks, women, people of color and more, I am very worried – concerned, confused and worn the hell out. I fluctuate between thinking I, or someone I love, will be disappeared or sent to a gulag, and thinking I'm crazy for worrying about being sent to a gulag. (A gulag, an El Salvadoran prison … without due process under the law, we are all at risk.) Share your opinion: Do you celebrate pride? Are you worried about Trump's impacts on it? Tell us. | Opinion Forum It's more important than ever to celebrate pride I don't know what the future holds, but I do know this … from Patroclus and Achilles to me and that dizzyingly dashing bantamweight MMA fighter, queer love has been with us since before recorded time, and it cannot be erased. It's not going anywhere. Alas, queer hate, using the smallest minority as a scapegoat to rally against, has been with us for nearly as long. And that's why we have pride. Pride Month is more than just a time to wave rainbow flags, show off cute outfits and watch a drag show while eating chicken-on-a-stick. At its very heart, pride is an event to gather with people who care, with folks who are sharing the same oftentimes lonesome and frightening experience, a place for all who are marginalized to feel accepted, heard and to be surrounded, supported and seen by people just like you. Just like me. Pride is a home, and you, queer reader, are pride. I don't know what we can do to save or reclaim our country, but maybe it's the same as what we can do to save or reclaim our sense of self: Rally likeminded individuals to support, to vote, to come together, to shout, to celebrate ourselves, our authentic existence, our lives, our liberty, our pursuit of happiness, our very survival and … our pride. Robert M. Nelson lives in Detroit. This column originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
French defence minister announces drone production in Ukraine
French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu has stated that a French car manufacturer, in cooperation with a defence company, will launch drone production in Ukraine. Source: Le Monde; European Pravda Details: French car and defence companies will manufacture drones on Ukrainian territory. Lecornu considers this a "mutually beneficial" partnership with Kyiv. "We are launching an entirely new partnership, under which a major French car company will join forces with a small or medium-sized French defence business to establish production lines in Ukraine for manufacturing drones," he said. He did not specify the type of drones but noted they would be used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Lecornu also mentioned that these drones would be available to French armed forces so they "maintain constant tactical and operational training that corresponds to the realities" of the war in Ukraine. He said that Ukraine would provide feedback on the use of these drones in combat conditions. "There is no need to ask French citizens to work on the production line in Ukraine," Lecornu emphasised. He added that Ukrainians are "better than us at developing drones and, most importantly, at forming the doctrine of their application". Background: On 5 June, Ukrainian and French defence ministers discussed possibilities for joint weapons production for the needs of Ukraine's defence forces during a meeting in Brussels. Ukraine and its partner countries decided to establish a mechanism for defence production, according to an agreement reached at the 28th meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (also known as the Ramstein Format) held on 4 June at NATO headquarters. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
