Wow, THAT turned into an ethics train wreck in record time! (It’s “historic,” right! That means it’s good…)

I’m not a full-time blogger, so I didn’t find out about this inexcusable botch by Fox-News-talking-head-miraculously-turned-Defense-Secretary Pete Hegseth until late yesterday afternoon after I had thought the last post was up. But as soon as I did see the story I posted on it, and in the essay I endorsed the conclusion of vociferously NeverTrump conservative NYT opinion writer (He’s in the Times stable because he’s so reliably anti-Trump) David French: Hegseth should resign. Then I found out, not to my surprise but disgust, that many conservative news sources and opinion sites were taking the same “nothingburger” approach to this that the Axis took to Hillary Clinton’s deliberate breach of national security laws, Hunter Biden’s laptop, Joe’s senility and Hillary’s hubby’s sexual harassment hobby.

Yecchh.

The New York Post, currently the closest thing we have to a principled conservative Big City newspaper, didn’t circle the wagons, as you can see in its front page above. Bravo. It doesn’t get the tabloid an Ethics Hero designation, since that’s what newspapers are supposed to do: report the news accurately in a timely fashion. I can’t say the same for Fox News, and shame on them.

It was actually kind of funny watching the array of channels on my DirecTV News Mix, which shows CNN, BBC America, MSNBC and two weather channels (why two?) with Fox News in the middle, and seeing all but the weather channels reporting on nothing but the security breach while Fox was fulminating about everything else t ould come up with to avoid the proverbial Mastodon in the room. Attacks on Teslas! Schumer’s troops revolting! Jasmine Crocket being an asshole! The Mayor of Boston defying ICE! Even the stupid Trump portrait in Colorado. Nothing about the Yemen attack security breach, at least not while I was watching.

Ethics Verdict: Hypocritical, incompetent and damning.

And stupid.

I don’t blame CNN and MSNBC for going bananas over this: for weeks they have both been spinning like mad to attack Trump and his team over either contrived controversies or acts that deserve balanced coverage but received none at their hands. Now, finally, Rachel Maddow had something to legitimately curl her ever-curled lip about. (I’m happy for you, Rachel.)

Meanwhile, so far, Hegseth, the White House and too much of the conservative media are showing how thin their venires of integrity are. The high point is National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes at least admitting that the Signal chain that included Goldberg “appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.” That’s still inadequate though: I am hoping they will investigate why the discussion was on an encrypted ap rather than over a secure government communication platform approved for such meetings.

President Trump‘s first reaction—essentially “This is the first I’ve heard of it!”—may well have been true. White House Paid Liar Karoline Leavitt has been doing her job—spinning, deflecting and lying—so I can’t blame her for that, though it’s pretty transparent:

Step one: Attack the messenger: Leavitt dismissed Goldberg as “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

Step Two: Avoid the real issue: “As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread,” Leavitt posted. 

Step Three: Accentuate the positive, as the song goes: “Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump.”

Nice try, kid. It’s not going to work, and shouldn’t work. This ethics train wreck is barreling down the track like the Cannonball Express, and I’m getting flooded with new developments as I type this. Give me a bit of time to gather my thoughts along with the facts, and I’ll be back with Part II as soon as possible.