The media’s rush to lecture on faith and then scramble when shown wrong demonstrates a pattern of arrogance and sloppy reporting; Secretary Hegseth’s comparison of the press to the Pharisees struck a nerve, and same-day coverage exposed the very behavior he described, including a botched claim that he had misquoted a film rather than scripture.

The Press Proves Secretary Hegseth Right About Being ‘Pharisees’ With a Failure of Biblical Proportions

Watching journalists posture as experts on Scripture while carrying clear contempt for faith is a spectacle that rarely ends well for them. Their habit of delivering condescending takes on religion without the humility or homework required only makes their mistakes louder.

For years, trust in mainstream outlets has been falling, yet those outlets rarely change course. Instead of fixing obvious weaknesses, many reporters double down on fractured narratives and politically motivated frames that widen the credibility gap.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spelled out that disconnect plainly at a Pentagon briefing, saying the press behaved like the Pharisees who “were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda.” He traced his impression to a sermon he heard from his pastor and used Biblical language to criticize media motives.

“They were only there to explain away the goodness in pursuit of their agenda. As the passage ends, the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel against him, how to destroy him.” This quote was presented intact and unchanged.

That same day the press seemed to confirm his point by staging a rapid-fire response that amounted to a modern-day “holding counsel” against Hegseth. Instead of pausing to check facts, a number of outlets rushed to portray his remarks as an embarrassing theological gaffe that supposedly borrowed lines from a movie.

Variety, a Hollywood trade outlet, led a wave of criticism that claimed Hegseth had misquoted actor Samuel L. Jackson, attributing the alleged mix-up to an instance when he was said to be quoting the Bible at a Pentagon worship session. The claim was loud and confident, but it was also wrong.

Other outlets piled on without doing the basic legwork needed to verify a simple text or transcript. Mother Jones joined the chorus, amplifying the error and demonstrating the same reflexive hostility Hegseth described. The rush to judgment here was not subtle; it was predictable.

I decided to check the record myself, the one task that would have taken any reporter a minute and spared them the embarrassment of a false claim. When the actual transcript of the service was reviewed, it showed Hegseth referencing a prayer labeled CSAR 25:17, which he explained was meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17 and was recited by mission planners and crews before rescue missions.

Here are the precise words he read and explained: “Which leads me finally to a prayer that I’ll read, which was also handed to me a couple of days ago, delivered from the lead mission planner of Sandy-1. Sandy-1 were the A-10s that were a part of the daylight rescue mission of 44 Alpha – Dude 44 Alpha out of Iran. So it’s this prayer that was recited by Sandy-1, which is one of the Sandies, to all Sandies, all those A-10 crews prior to all CSAR missions, but especially this CSAR mission that happened in real time. They call it CSAR 25:17, which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17. So the prayer is CSAR 25:17.” That is an exact rendering of his remarks.

One would think that claiming he had attributed Samuel L. Jackson to Scripture would require more than instincts and a headline chase. Instead, emotion and anti-conservative bias pushed some reporters to skip the verification step that any competent journalist would perform before publishing such a claim.

The episode highlights a recurring problem: when reporters opine on theology, they often substitute prejudice for research. It is not a subtle error; it is a pattern of behavior where narrative priority trumps accuracy, and the result is predictable hypocrisy when their stories are examined.

Conservative readers and practitioners of faith see more than a factual stumble here; they see a media industry that too often treats religion as a punchline rather than a subject demanding respect and careful reporting. That distorts public understanding and deepens the distrust many Americans feel toward legacy outlets.

There is a lesson in all this for journalists who insist on policing faith from a place of bias: do the work, check the transcript, and recognize that contempt does not equal expertise. Until the press fixes that, episodes like this will keep happening, and they will continue to undermine whatever moral authority those outlets pretend to claim.