U.S. Politics · White House · 34 outlets (L 6 · C 11 · R 15 · 2 not rated)
Hegseth fires top Pentagon planner over alleged classified leaks
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the head of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from the Pentagon's top military planning role.[8, 10, 25] Several outlets reported Sylvia was accused of leaking classified information about the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war; a Pentagon official told CBS News he failed three polygraph tests about providing information to the press.[8, 23, 24] IJR and Mediaite reported that no reason was given for the firing and no successor was announced.[12, 25]
The move came as President Donald Trump weighs possible renewed strikes on Iran, though IJR reported no direct link between the personnel change and strike planning has been established.[25] Sylvia was the second general removed from the post under Hegseth, according to the New York Post, and Task & Purpose reported he is retiring.[15, 26]
When asked about the firing, Trump appeared to mistake Sylvia, who is male, for a woman, according to Raw Story and The Daily Beast.[2, 3] Trump blasted Democrats Thursday over calls to impeach Hegseth, telling reporters, "I think it's terrible. All they do is they talk about impeaching everybody."[16]
Why it matters Task & Purpose reported that Sylvia is retiring from the Army after leaving the Joint Chiefs of Staff.[15]
Covered by The New York Times, CBS News, Fox News and 31 more
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How balanced is this coverage?
Of the 32 rated outlets that covered it, 6 are left of center, 11 are center and 15 are right of center (13 of them in the Right group). 2 more are not rated.
- Left: none.
- Leans left: The New Republic (−1.09), Raw Story (−0.94), MS NOW (−0.76), The New York Times (−0.70), The Guardian (−0.70), The Daily Beast (−0.64).
- Center: PBS NewsHour (−0.48), Newsweek (−0.30), Task & Purpose (−0.15), International Business Times (−0.14), CBS News (−0.14), Axios (−0.05), Mediaite (+0.04), Yahoo News (+0.07), The Hill (+0.10), UPI (+0.17), CNBC (+0.40).
- Leans right: New York Post (+0.64), The National Interest (+0.72).
- Right: The Washington Times (+1.27), Washington Examiner (+1.34), Fox News (+1.52), IJR (+1.52), Blaze Media (+1.71), RedState (+1.87), Townhall (+2.01), Breitbart (+2.03), The Daily Wire (+2.07), The Western Journal (+2.13), One America News Network (+2.69), Conservative Review (+2.76), The Right Scoop (+3.11).
Not rated Al Jazeera, Los Angeles Times. Not placed: they have no lean score.
Each dot is an outlet that covered it, placed by its audience-lean score (Eady et al. 2025), which measures who shares its links, not how accurate it is. The ticks under the line are all 113 rated outlets Tare reads.