Where’s Pete? Hegseth’s Nearly One-Year Absence From Fox News Sparks Questions

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TOP STORY

PAGING PETE HEGSETH

It was too late for today’s stack, but some blockbuster late breaking media news, as Fox News has abruptly parted ways with longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo. Check out Mediaite for all the details on this stunning development.

Today’s top story in newsletter-land also deals with a former Fox personality — as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hasn’t been featured on Fox News in nearly a year. That’s pretty surprising for two reasons. First, he worked at the network for nearly 10 years to join President Donald Trump’s White House. Second, Fox has featured no shortage of Trump administration guests across all of its programming, and one would think they’d be clamoring to bring him on any chance they get.

So, with that in mind… let’s dive in:

THREE TAKES

Media Matters for America, Matt Gertz — The last time Hegseth was featured on Fox News was October 5, 2025, when Fox’s White House correspondent Peter Doocey “aired a lengthy interview he had conducted the previous day … on the sidelines of the Navy-Air Force football game.” At the time, Hegseth had recently been “plucked” by the president to head the Pentagon. Since then, the pair have “embroiled the U.S. military in an open-ended war with Iran; the U.S. military continued to carry out their policy of illegally bombing purported drug cartel boats at sea and oversaw a regime change in Venezuela; and the defense secretary repeatedly came under fire for purging the top ranks of the armed forces,” Gertz added. He continued, “It’s unclear why Hegseth has not appeared on Fox since October 5 of last year — but the timing is conspicuous.” That’s especially true because Hegseth still regularly appears on other networks — just not Fox.

The Poynter Report, Tom Jones — Jones admitted it is “a bit surprising” Hegseth has been absent from the network, and that’s for all the reasons that are obvious. “First, Fox News is usually a friendly place for Trump administration officials to get their message across — especially when public opinion is against them,” Jones wrote. “Second, Hegseth came from Fox News. He was a regular co-host on the weekend edition of ‘Fox & Friends’ when Trump tapped him for defense secretary.” In other words, at a time when even members of his own political party seem to be turning against the president, a visit to the network that is most frequently watched by the MAGA base could do the administration some good, right?

To The Contrary, Charlie Sykes — While he’s been absent from conservative radio waves, Hegeth has also ushered in a period of chaos in the military, Sykes wrote. He and the president are “escalating their war on the American military,” something that’s evidenced by the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. As Sykes bluntly put it, “decline is a choice” — and it seems to be one American leadership is embracing.

TAKEAWAY: We won’t really know why Hegseth hasn’t been on Fox News in almost a year until he or they tell us, but there’s plenty out there that could support just about any position one might want to take. Per our stack, it seems one reason might be that his current job has proven to be more difficult than he thought, and maybe returning to the network he called home for 10 years — and being held accountable to the very audience his boss is relying on for support in the fall midterms — doesn’t sound like a good time right now. Whatever’s going on, most authors seem to agree it’s pretty weird.

📰 TOP SCOOPS & ANALYSIS 📰

SCOOP 🍨 POLITICO Playbook, Adam Wren, Dasha Burns, and Will Steakin — Stephen A. Smith has no plans to run for president in 2028, he told Burns, despite having “fueled” some of the speculation he might do so himself. Smith said, “I would give up my job if I won the presidency, but I’m not giving up my job to campaign for it.” Smith also named Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as his top pick and had high praise for Maryland’s Governor Wes Moore. If he has to pick between Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Vice President JD Vance, his vote is the former because Vance is “an individual that tries to be too like Trump.”

SCOOP 🍨 Status, Natalie Korach — The Washington Post’s opinion section “started a new chapter” on Monday, Korach noted, and that’s one “without top editor Adam O’Neal, who officially vacated the role and the newspaper altogether after a tumultuous year of leadership. Sources told Korach O’Neal’s exit was “without fanfare,” which is similar to how he joined, she pointed out: “with no traditional announcement, just a peculiar video message posted to social media.” On top of that, Korach also reported O’Neal was “ barely been seen in person by staffers, aside from the all-hands meeting where he addressed his departure and offered little explanation beyond personal family reasons,” since news he’d be leaving dropped in July.

SCOOP 🍨 POLITICO Playbook, Adam Wren, Dasha Burns, and Will Steakin — “A parade of Democrats running in red states” have told former Vice President Kamala Harris they don’t want her help, and it turns out Harris is “shrugging it off.” Her spokesperson Eduardo Negrón told Playbook, “It’s all good. Vice President Harris will continue to raise money and travel on behalf of candidates in races where she can help make a difference. With Trump so unpopular and our deep bench of strong candidates, we are now seeing deeply red states in play this cycle. The Vice President believes we should be ruthless about competing everywhere and that means giving candidates in tough races the space to do whatever it takes to win.” But if there’s one region where Harris “does enjoy a wellspring of support,” it’s in the South — where she’s been “lavishing attention.”

ANALYSIS 👀 Punchbowl News AM — Republicans have a new strategy ahead of the midterms, which they need “as their candidates get dogged by an affordability crisis, a tax-cuts message that never quite breaks through and a president who keeps undermining his own party,” Punchbowl wrote today. Though GOP Senate leaders have “pushed hard to make this election about the One Big Beautiful Bill and President Donald Trump’s successful effort to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to undocumented immigrants,” surveys keep revealing voters “still see the midterms as a referendum on an unpopular president — which could hand Democrats majorities on Capitol Hill.” Some GOP candidates have “seemed to be taking Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s advice – focus on the far-left candidates winning Democratic primaries up and down the ballot, not GOP in-fighting.”

ANALYSIS 👀 The Bulwark’s The Opposition, Lauren Egan — Trump has “handed Dems their best gift yet” by way of his full-throttle support of data centers, Egan wrote. While the president “may have been throwing a bone to the Big Tech benefactors who supported his campaign,” he also succeeded in yet again supporting the idea he “seems perversely intent on making this campaign season as difficult as possible for the GOP—just look at his decisions to launch a trade war with Canada and sell out American cattle ranchers to a Brazilian billionaire in the same week.” This messaging will only continue to help Democrats, who have deftly “tied the proliferation of those facilities to the party’s overarching midterm theme of affordability” this election cycle.

📈BUSINESS OF MEDIA 🎥

Status, Natalie Korach —The New York Times’ The Athletic has permanently ended its plans to pursue a sports betting or prediction-market partnership with Kalshi. The abrupt retreat followed an intense internal pressure campaign from the Times Guild Unit Council and The Athletic’s contract action team, who sent a letter warning owner A.G. Sulzberger and other senior execs that the deal would compromise their journalistic independence across the company. QUOTE 📣 “A person familiar with the decision told Status the letter didn’t play a role in The Athletic no longer pursuing a partnership with Kalshi, and … The Athletic is still discussing potential advertising opportunities with Kalshi.”

The Ankler’s Series Business, Lesley Goldberg — The post-”Peak TV” spending pullback has prompted streamers and legacy television studios to rewrite the overall showrunner deal playbook. In a contracted market where gigantic eight- and nine-figure deals are expiring without renewal, studios are aggressively lowering guaranteed upfront payouts and replacing them with back-end bonuses that only pay out in success. QUOTE 📣  “Post-Peak TV, many exclusive deals have seen their guaranteed upfront value come down. Studios and streamers are replacing some of that guaranteed money with bonuses that pay out only in success. The moves are part of a larger trend across the industry after streamers and legacy studios were burned by overpaying showrunners and non-writing producers and getting little to no return on their major investments.”

The Ankler Features, Degen Pener — The sudden explosion of vertical, mobile-first microdramas has created an entirely new lane of full-time stardom for veteran Los Angeles actors. This fascinating edition of Features focused on TJ Wilk, a 47-year-old former male model, personal trainer, and Beverly Hills manny, who has emerged as the “unofficial king of verticals” after filming more than 30 micro-series since 2023, two decades after he first moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. Consisting of highly melodramatic 60- to 120-second vertical video episodes, his series—including the werewolf drama Her Desired Alphas on ReelShort (28.8 million views) and Drowning in His Restraint (over 1.6 billion views on TikTok and LoveShots)—have reshaped the digital acting landscape. Even if you’ve never heard of these things, this is a trend to keep an eye on. QUOTE 📣 “I learned what a vertical was when I got on set. On my very first scene on the very first day, we were like nose-to-nose. It was so different than anything I’ve ever done in acting class or in a commercial. Everything has to fit into the vertical framing.”

Simon Owens’s Media Newsletter, Simon Owens — Digital publishers are launching a wave of live video programs. Look at The Information debuting its weekly “AI Deep Dive” and The Athletic launching a nightly streaming show, for instance. But it’s not happening for the reasons most observers would think. Recall the failed livestreaming attempts of BuzzFeed and HuffPost a decade ago relied on drawing massive live viewer counts. That’s not the way anymore: modern publishers are using live broadcasts purely as low-cost production engines. The primary goal is capturing candid vertical clips that can be distributed across social feeds to go viral. It worked for The Information, which gained over 1.2 million social media followers since launching its first daily live show, “TITV,” last year. QUOTE 📣 “I see this as the TBPN effect. That show doesn’t actually attract a huge live audience, but it’s chopped up into a steady stream of short-form clips, some of which go viral.”

Puck’s Line Sheet, Lauren Sherman — The Costume Institute’s decision to cancel its planned John Galliano exhibition has triggered intense speculation and gossip about whether the Met Gala itself can even go forward next year. The cancellation represents a rare, highly public blow to co-chair Anna Wintour, who had spent years championing Galliano’s public rehabilitation and had recently agreed to let a Netflix documentary crew follow her to capture the project. QUOTE 📣 “After three days of hair-on-fire industry discourse, it’s impossible to imagine a celebration occurring on the first Monday in May next year… Is that an overcooked thesis funneled through the lens of two columnists looking for a topic at the end of summer? Or is a cancellation, or at least a postponement, a logical way to avoid protestors and swarms of ensuing negative P.R.?”

Awful Announcing’s The A Block, Sean Keeley — Three years after Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders parlayed a flurry of self-promotion and early upset victories into the most valuable and wanted media product in college football, his program’s ratings dominance has entirely evaporated. In 2023, Sanders’ Buffaloes were a rating juggernaut, drawing over 7 million viewers on Fox for Week 1 and setting a 9.3 million viewer record on ESPN against Colorado State. However, following a disastrous 3-9 campaign in 2025 and a series of high-profile spats with reporters, the program has faded from national network broadcasts, and Sanders has resorted to banning media members from watching practices altogether. QUOTE 📣 “And so, here we are, three years later, and Sanders might just be coaching for his job. That would have seemed unthinkable during September and October in 2023, when everyone in college football was falling all over themselves to associate with or watch Colorado football.”

OTHER COOL STUFF

Morning Brew — A viral trend featuring spooky, AI-generated images of people stalking suburban streets in a “Cat in the Hat” costume has forced authorities to issue public warnings to soothe panicked neighborhood watch groups.

The Daily OutKick — An unnamed pizza delivery driver has gone viral for showing absolute dedication to the gig after calmly walking right past a wild black bear hanging out in a customer’s driveway to deliver a fresh pie.

👀 WHAT GOT MISSED? 👀

Status, Natalie Korach — Business Insider launched a new format on its website this week, Korach briefly noted. Readers can now opt for text-heavy, video-heavy, or audio-heavy experiences when sifting through the site’s content, which really brings a choose-your-own-adventure vibe to the mix. As the industry continues to debate the most effective ways to bring content to their audiences, maybe the most effective thing to do is ultimately let them decide.

🏆 NEWSLETTER OF THE DAY 🏆

CJR’S Ethics and Security, Anika Collier Navaroli — Our authors are often great at conjuring headlines that immediately grab our attention, and Navaroli hit it out of the ballpark with today’s: Should I Throw My Laptop into the Sea? After all, how many of us who are constantly parked behind a small screen have asked the same thing? Navaroli offered her weekly “Ask Anika” column today, and addressed the real question: “What sort of relationship should I have with AI, as a journalist?” Her answer: “You can decide what kind of relationship you want to have with technology. We still have choices, even when it feels like we are at the mercy of the whims of Big Tech oligarchs.” There’s plenty more where that came from.

This newsletter was produced by Lindsey Ellefson.