The press faces a Pentagon ‘black box’ on the Iran war

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Wednesday’s Pentagon press briefing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine gave at least the appearance of transparency.

But the military leaders mostly received kid-glove treatment from the Trump-aligned media outlets that had front-row seats in the briefing room.

And more broadly, as Hegseth says the US is “accelerating” its strikes inside Iran, Pentagon beat reporters say they are not getting answers to key questions about the ongoing military operations. “Lots of chest-thumping, less concrete data” is how one reporter put it.

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