Every outlet covered the tomb. Right-leaning outlets didn't.
On Veterans Day, an Army sentinel shouted at Pete Hegseth's group to maintain silence at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after laughter was heard near the burial site. The Pentagon confirmed it happened, calling it a reminder to 'maintain decorum.' Nine outlets covered the incident. Not one of them leans right. The story isn't whether the rebuke happened — the Pentagon's own spokesman confirmed it did. The story is that the outlets most likely to defend Hegseth decided, collectively, not to touch it.
Soldier shouts at Hegseth to show respect at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
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What happened
On Wednesday, November 11, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery as part of Veterans Day observances. Following the ceremony, an Army sentinel shouted at Hegseth's group, which included his wife and several aides, to maintain silence after laughter was audible near the burial site. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the incident, describing it as the sentinel reminding everyone to 'maintain decorum.' The rebuke came on the same day the House failed to impeach Hegseth, with 11 Democrats missing the vote — five of whom cited Washington traffic. President Trump, speaking at a Veterans Day event, defended Hegseth and claimed the U.S. 'did not start the war with Iran.' Nine outlets reported the tomb incident. That is the wire version. What separates the coverage is which outlets chose to run it at all.
Left-leaning and center outlets ran it; right-leaning outlets didn't assign it
The NYT, Guardian, BBC, The Hill, Newsweek, Forbes, and the Washington Examiner all covered the incident, but the sourcing skews heavily left and center. The Washington Examiner is the lone right-adjacent outlet in the mix, and its framing is the most neutral of the group: 'Arlington guard scolds Hegseth's entourage for laughing.' The Guardian embedded the tomb incident inside a live blog also covering the failed impeachment vote and Trump's Iran remarks, giving it the most context of any outlet. Forbes and Newsweek ran it as a straight news item. No outlet with a clearly right-leaning identity — not Fox News, Breitbart, the Daily Wire, or the New York Post — appears in the coverage at all.
The Washington Examiner ran it, but framed the subject as the entourage, not Hegseth
The Examiner's headline reads 'Arlington guard scolds Hegseth's entourage for laughing' — placing the laughter on unnamed aides rather than the Defense Secretary himself. The NYT headline names Hegseth directly: 'Soldier Shouts Toward Hegseth to Show Respect.' The BBC and The Hill also name Hegseth in their leads. The Examiner's version is technically accurate; the Pentagon spokesman did not specify who laughed. But the choice to center the entourage rather than the cabinet secretary is the only editorial decision in this story that requires a second read.
What one side told you that the other didn't
Right-leaning outlets that cover Hegseth daily skipped this entirely.
Fox News, Breitbart, the Daily Wire, and the New York Post have each covered Hegseth extensively — his confirmation, his management of the Pentagon, the impeachment effort. None of them appear in coverage of an incident the Pentagon itself confirmed. The sentinel's rebuke is on the record, attributed to a named government spokesman. It is not a partisan claim. The absence is a choice, and it runs in one direction.
The Pentagon confirmed it. That detail got buried or skipped.
The NYT and The Hill both note that a Pentagon spokesman confirmed the incident, describing it as the sentinel reminding the group to 'maintain decorum.' That confirmation matters: it removes any ambiguity about whether the rebuke happened. Forbes and Newsweek quote the sentinel's words — 'maintain silence' and 'pay respect' — without citing the Pentagon confirmation. The BBC and Guardian mention the shouting but don't foreground the official confirmation. A story the Defense Department itself confirms should not require readers to cross-reference multiple outlets to find that fact.
The impeachment vote and the tomb incident ran as separate stories everywhere.
Only the Guardian connected the two events in a single piece, noting the tomb incident occurred on the same day the House failed to impeach Hegseth. Eleven Democrats missed that vote; five blamed traffic. The juxtaposition — a failed accountability vote and a public breach of military decorum, on Veterans Day — went unremarked in every other outlet's coverage. The Guardian's live blog format made the connection almost incidental. No outlet treated it as the actual story.
What to watch
The House impeachment effort failed Tuesday, but Rep. Thomas Massie told the NYT he intends to force additional difficult votes before leaving office. If Massie introduces another Hegseth-related measure before the end of the congressional session, watch whether right-leaning outlets cover the tomb incident retroactively as context — or continue to leave it out of their Hegseth files entirely. The gap will either close or harden within the next two weeks.
See how outlets across the political spectrum framed this differently — and what each side left out.