Latest news with #GabrielleCuccia
Washington Post
2 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
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. '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 Three days after her Memorial Day Substack post, Cuccia said her Pentagon access badge was revoked.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. 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 and
Associated Press
2 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
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 and
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Reporter says she was fired from Trump-friendly outlet after criticizing Hegseth
A pro-Donald Trump journalist says she was fired from her job after criticizing the president's secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, over his attempts to restrict media access at the Pentagon. Gabrielle Cuccia, the former chief Pentagon correspondent for the far-right, Trump-friendly media outlet One America News (OAN), says she was terminated shortly after she published a Substack post accusing Hegseth's defense department of clamping down on press access. She had said the restrictions were disturbing, questioned the defense department's motives in tightening media restrictions, and noted that Hegseth has yet to hold a formal press conference since taking office. Cuccia claimed the shift began after the controversy known as 'Signalgate', in which Hegseth – a former Fox News anchor – allegedly shared sensitive military details in a group chat that inadvertently included a well-known journalist from the Atlantic. According to Cuccia, that scandal marked the beginning of a broader effort to limit media interaction at the Pentagon. 'Let's be honest – since January, the real leaks from the Pentagon haven't come from the press,' she wrote in her Substack. 'They've come from Hegseth's own team and other senior officials.' Alluding to Trump's Make America Great Again (Maga) movement and Russian election interference in the US, she added: 'As a MAGA girl myself, I cannot stand when we take something super serious and legitimate – such as the Russia Hoax – and conflate everything and anything that is an inconvenient truth, throw in the towel and say, 'Yep its just a Russia Hoax,' and then proceed to call people losers and liars for reporting something that was unfortunately … true.' Cuccia pointed out how there has been only one press briefing under Hegseth's leadership of the Pentagon during Trump's second presidency, which began in January. None have been held after Signalgate, which occurred in March. Her breaking point reportedly came last week, when the Pentagon instituted a new policy requiring journalists to be escorted by public affairs staff to access Hegseth's office. 'The Pentagon wants to paint a picture that journalists are freely roaming classified spaces, sneaking into [sensitive compartmented information facilities], and leaking top-secret information. And that is simply not true,' the post said. Officials justified the move by stating it would minimize the risk of accidental or unauthorized disclosures. Cuccia also highlighted her conservative background in the post, emphasizing her ongoing loyalty to the conservative movement. She recalled her time at the University of Pennsylvania, where she said she was branded a 'racist' and a 'fascist' for not joining Black Lives Matter protests. Despite her service to Maga, Cuccia told CNN that she was asked to turn in her Pentagon badge to her bureau chief after the Substack post about Hegseth's increased media restrictions. Her resume includes a stint in the White House in 2017 and 2018, during Trump's first presidency. She then spent several years reporting for OAN and working as a government contractor. One of Cuccia's past appearances on Newsmax, another far-right outlet, went viral after she echoed Trump's lies that electoral fraudsters ensured his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Cuccia's remarks prompted the anchor to cut the segment short.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Pro-MAGA reporter fired after questioning why Pete Hegseth hides from the media
Gabrielle Cuccia, a self-described 'MAGA girl' who served as One America News' chief Pentagon correspondent, says the far-right network fired her after she criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's war against the free press. In a blistering Substack post on Tuesday, Cuccia – who served in the first Trump administration – tore into the Pentagon for limiting media access and blasted Hegseth for not holding one press briefing since taking over as the head of the Defense Department. Specifically, she took issue with the agency closing off portions of the Pentagon that had previously always been open to reporters. 'He claims it's to 'reduce the opportunity for in-person inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures.' But let's be honest — since January, the real leaks from the Pentagon haven't come from the press. They've come from Hegseth's own team and other senior officials,' she wrote. 'I personally know reporters who've sent formal emails to Hegseth's office requesting clarification on specific topics — and received radio silence in return,' Cuccia added. 'Let's call this what it is: limiting freedom of movement in the name of 'national security.'' Making sure to burnish her pro-Trump bona fides, Cuccia noted that it is 'pretty obvious how I feel about fake news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and ABC,' adding that she thinks 'their obsession with advocating for transgender inclusion in the military is a complete waste of time and taxpayer resources.' At the same time, though, she noted that while their 'coverage may not be my cup of tea,' it 'doesn't mean I stand behind Hegseth's decision' to limit reporters' movements through the Pentagon. 'It also raises a fair question: why has the Department prioritized limiting press access, while the Secretary of Defense himself has yet to hold a briefing in the press room during his first 100 days?' Cuccia also asked. Two days after she published her fateful Substack post, Cuccia told CNN that her bureau chief asked her to turn in her Pentagon badge. The following days, she said, she was fitted by the network. Asked to comment on the circumstances surrounding Cuccia's termination, OAN president Charles Herring told The Independent that 'we don't comment on employee related issues.' 'On Thursday, my Pentagon badge was revoked. By Friday, I was out of a job,' Cuccia told The Independent. 'The timing came just days after I published a personal Substack article raising legitimate concerns about new restrictions placed on journalists inside the Pentagon — an article my employer later confirmed had been 'put on their radar.'' She continued: 'When a reporter asks inconvenient questions about government overreach, the response should be accountability — not silence, and certainly not separation. You can love your country and still challenge those who govern it. I've never been afraid to speak the truth, even when it costs me. My loyalty is — and always will be — to my country above all else. And for those reasons, this isn't the end.' The Independent also asked Cuccia if she was aware if OAN had tapped anyone else to replace her yet as the network's top Pentagon reporter. 'I can confirm I have been contacted by potential new hires to fill my role asking how to do the job, what are the expectations, what qualifies as conflicts of interest within the role, and what my experience was like with OAN,' she said. 'I was told that OAN is seeking to fill this role as soon as today, Monday, June 2nd.' Cuccia, who had briefly worked for OAN as a White House correspondent towards the end of the first Trump administration, was re-hired by OAN in February to lead its defense coverage after Hegseth took away NBC's longtime workspace and handed it to the MAGA channel. This was, of course, part of the administration's larger effort to push out mainstream media outlets and elevate sympathetic right-wing coverage. Initially elated with the opportunity, Cuccia would take to her social media accounts to document how she personally renovated the old NBC office into what she deemed 'Liberty Lounge.' Still, her joy soon grew into skepticism and disillusionment over the way Hegseth handled the Signalgate scandal. 'Our SecDef told us that it was Fake News. That it was another Russia Hoax,' she noted. 'As a MAGA girl myself, I cannot stand when we take something super serious and legitimate - such as the Russia Hoax - and conflate everything and anything that is an inconvenient truth, throw in the towel and say, 'Yep its just a Russia Hoax,' and then proceed to call people losers and liars for reporting something that was unfortunately… true.' Cuccia insisted that following Signalgate, 'the Pentagon stopped all press briefings moving forward and simultaneously decided to lock one of the doors that connects journalists to the DoD's Public Affairs Officials, a door that has always been wide open.' She also took Hegseth to task for the 'cheap PR move' of using the Memorial Day weekend to 'conveniently' announce that reporters are no longer allowed access to the offices of the Secretary of Defense or the Joint Chiefs without an official escort. 'This Administration, to my surprise, also locked the doors to the Pentagon Briefing room, a protocol that was never in place in prior Administrations, and a door that is never locked for press at the White House,' she wrote. 'The Commander-in-Chief welcomes the hard questions… and yes, even the dumb ones. Why won't the Secretary of Defense do the same?' Cuccia rhetorically asked. Since telling CNN on Friday that she was fired by OAN, Cuccia has since changed her X profile to read 'Fmr Chief Pentagon Correspondent' and posted a story on her Instagram that included a screenshot of her Substack article. 'You know… I was once told that a former peer feared I was too MAGA for this job,' she captioned the story. 'I guess I was. I guess I am.' Throughout her Substack post, she asserted that her intention in sounding off against the DoD press policy was to 'tear down' Hegseth, but due to her 'wanting to keep MAGA alive.' She also repeatedly used the phrase 'love your country, not your government,' which is a slogan she's emblazoned on tank tops that she began selling on Etsy last year. Prior to returning to OAN this year, Cuccia had drawn attention to herself by posing with firearms on her social media accounts, hawking her MAGA-branded merchandise, and once causing a Newsmax host to cut off her mic after she began peddling Trump's baseless 2020 election fraud claims on the air. Newsmax, like One America News, has been sued multiple times for defamation for amplifying election denialism and voting machine conspiracy theories. If she was indeed fired for criticizing Hegseth and the administration, this wouldn't be the first time that OAN has terminated an employee for speaking out publicly. Back in 2021, the right-wing cable channel fired producer Marty Golingan after he told the New York Times on the record that many network staffers don't think many of OAN stories are factual. One America News, which had been facing an existential crisis after losing nearly all of its cable and satellite contracts in recent years over its conspiratorial coverage, appears to be on the upswing since Trump's return to the White House. Besides taking over NBC's office space in the Pentagon, the network hired former GOP congressman (and one-time attorney general nominee) Matt Gaetz as a primetime host, and White House senior adviser Kari Lake announced last month that she struck a deal with the channel to blast out its content on Voice of America's airwaves. Cuccia isn't the only conservative media figure who has scrutinized the Pentagon press crackdown. After CNN first reported on her firing, Fox News media host Howie Kurtz highlighted the criticism over Hegseth's actions against the media and brought on former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr to blast the defense secretary (and former Fox News host) for restricting press access.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Inside the Pentagon, she crossed a line with Pete Hegseth - now she's out and feeling VERY scorned
A pro-MAGA reporter who criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's treatment of the press at the Pentagon lost her job after speaking out. Gabrielle Cuccia is a proud 'MAGA girl' who has long been outspoken about her adoration of President Trump. But while working as the chief Pentagon correspondent at pro-Trump television channel One America News, Cuccia published a tell-all article to her personal Substack channel about the pitfalls of Hegseth's leadership. 'If you want the best case study for the death of the MAGA movement — look no further than the Department of Defense,' she wrote. 'People sleep on the Pentagon. They don't realize what's been simmering at the bottom for weeks, months, sometimes even years.' Cuccia had expressed concerns Hegseth was blocking media access in the wake of his Signal scandal, in which a journalist was unintentionally added to a group chat with Hegseth were he openly shared sensitive details about an impending strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. From that moment onwards, Cuccia said Hegseth shut down crucial communication points between the press and his staff in an effort to 'reduce the opportunity for in-person inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures.' 'Think of every time you hear a journalist reference a source as 'Defense Official' or something abstract… a lot of times, it's coming from these guys,' she revealed about the Pentagon press office. 'And they are always there to provide additional context, field questions, and relay the reality of ops in an unclassified manner.' Her article was published on Monday. By Thursday, her boss had asked her to hand in her Pentagon access badge, and on Friday she was fired, she told CNN. Cuccia criticized Hegseth for his lack of transparency, noting he had failed to deliver press conferences and alleged his team would deliberately hide details of his schedule until it was too late for media representatives to attend. 'Over at the White House, the Administration understands the freedom of the press, and keeps the door open anyway,' she said. 'They would certainly not field questions *before* said press briefing.' Cuccia alleged that during one press briefing, staff for Hegseth reached out to her to find out what question she would ask if she were called upon at a conference. She told them, thinking they simply 'wanted to be prepared for their very first press briefing to answer questions with as much info in response as possible. Unfortunately that was not the case.' 'This article isn't to serve as a tearing down of the SecDef,' she wrote. 'This is me wanting to keep MAGA alive. 'Despite my loyalty to this movement, we are killing ourselves.' Cuccia said the power of the MAGA movement was sparked in 2015, when 'America came alive' on the back of a 'shared realization we weren't going to blindly accept our government as Bible anymore.' Cuccia had expressed concerns Hegseth was blocking the media from reasonable access in the wake of his Signal scandal, in which a journalist was unintentionally added to a group chat where Hegseth openly shared sensitive details about an impending strike on Houthi targets in Yemen Since then, she said there has been a pointed shift away from the core values of the movement. '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. 'I will always be MAGA, but consider this a love letter to what we have lost, what we must regain, and my final plea to Love Your Country, Not Your Government.' Cuccia broke her public silence over her axing on Saturday, writing on Instagram: 'I was once told that a former peer feared I was too MAGA for the job. 'I guess I was. I guess I am.'
