Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News Fire-Breather'
John Ullyot stated Pete Hegseth is unfit for his role and impeachment is likely.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News Fire-Breather'
Photograph: RadarOnline (embedded from source)
What this story says
- John Ullyot, former Pentagon spokesman, described Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a 'Fox News fire-breather'.
- Ullyot stated that Hegseth is unfit for the position of defense secretary.
- Ullyot suggested that Hegseth's impeachment is a matter of time.
- Hegseth recently survived an impeachment push on the House floor.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 7 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
30/100
Craft
57/100
Hype
68/100
7 sources · methodology
John Ullyot, a former Pentagon spokesman, has publicly stated that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is unfit for his role. Ullyot, who previously served as the Defense Department's top communications official, described Hegseth as a 'Fox News fire-breather'. He made these remarks in an interview on CNN. Ullyot also suggested that Hegseth's impeachment is likely to occur in the future.
Hegseth narrowly avoided impeachment on the House floor recently. The vote count was 211-204, with eleven House Democrats absent. Ullyot's comments came shortly after this vote.
Disagreement on Hegseth's Departure
Raw Story reported that John Ullyot stepped down from his role in the spring of 2025. Crooks and Liars stated that Ullyot resigned as the Pentagon's chief spokesperson in April 2025, indicating that the Department of Defense had devolved into 'total disarray' under Hegseth.
What the coverage left out
None of the left or centre-rated reports mention the specific vote count of 211-204 for the impeachment push on the House floor, nor do they name the eleven House Democrats who were absent for the vote.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 1 time, most recently on 13 Nov 2026, 05:00, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
3 rated outlets
- Left-rated reports highlighted John Ullyot's description of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a 'Fox News fire-breather'. These reports focused on Ullyot's assertion that Hegseth was unfit for his position and that his impeachment was a matter of time. Raw Story noted Ullyot's departure from his Pentagon role in spring 2025, while Crooks and Liars specified his resignation in April 2025 and linked it to the Department of Defense being in 'total disarray'.
Centre
3 rated outlets
- Centre-rated reports also focused on John Ullyot's characterisation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a 'Fox News fire-breather'. These outlets noted Ullyot's statement that Hegseth was not fit to be defense secretary and that impeachment was likely. RadarOnline added that the former Pentagon official suggested Donald Trump 'deserves better' than Hegseth. Alabama Live and Staten Island Advance both mentioned Hegseth being called 'bombastic' by Ullyot during his CNN appearance.
Right
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News…?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 50% are rated left, 50% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 7. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News… left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News… biased?
- Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News Fire-Breather' is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which outlets covered Ex-Pentagon Spokesman Calls Defense Secretary Hegseth 'Fox News…?
- 7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- Who is John Ullyot and what did he say about Pete Hegseth?
- John Ullyot is a former Pentagon spokesman. He described Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a 'Fox News fire-breather', stated that Hegseth is unfit for his job, and suggested that impeachment is likely.
- Did Pete Hegseth face impeachment proceedings?
- Yes, Pete Hegseth narrowly survived an impeachment push on the House floor. The vote was 211-204, with eleven House Democrats absent.
- When did John Ullyot leave his Pentagon role?
- Reports indicate John Ullyot stepped down from his role as the Defense Department's top communications official in spring 2025, with one report specifying April 2025.
Read it at the source
7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
3- Hegseth's own ex-spokesman delivers epic putdown live on TV: 'Fox News fire breather' (opens Raw Story in a new tab)
Raw Story — is Raw Story biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Ex-Top Pentagon Spokesperson Slaps Pete Hegseth With Scathing 4-Word Label (opens HuffPost in a new tab)
- Ex-Top Pentagon Spox Brutally SHREDS 'Fox News Fire Breather' Pete Hegseth (opens Crooks and Liars in a new tab)
Crooks and Liars — is Crooks and Liars biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
Centre
3- Former Pentagon Official Blasts Pete Hegseth as 'Fox News Fire-Breather' — as He Warns Trump 'Deserves Better' (opens RadarOnline in a new tab)
RadarOnline — is RadarOnline biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former top aide in brutal takedown of Hegseth: ‘Fox News fire-breather’ (opens Staten Island Advance in a new tab)
Staten Island Advance — is Staten Island Advance biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Former top aide in brutal takedown of Hegseth: ‘Fox News fire-breather’ (opens Alabama Live in a new tab)
Alabama Live — is Alabama Live biased? Our profile of this outlet
Right
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Not rated
1How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
