Another day, another pompous and insanely over-the-top editorial to close out CBS Evening News Plus. This time, John Dickerson blesses us with his grandes pensées on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s convocation of his top generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisers for what has been colloquially termed a “Come to Pete” meeting.
Watch the editorial in its entirety, as streamed on CBS Evening News Plus on Wednesday, October 1st, 2025:
CBS EVENING NEWS PLUS
10/1/25
7:26 PM
JOHN DICKERSON: Imagine cooking dinner for the 800 best chefs in the world. This was the challenge facing President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth when they summoned the nation's top 800 generals and admirals to Quantico on Tuesday. They were delivering a speech to an audience whose collective expertise in leadership, motivation and managing large institutions probably exceeds 10,000 years. Every person in that audience knows the difference between words that earn commitment and words that demand compliance. They've delivered and been moved by words that inspire people to risk their lives. There has perhaps never been an instance where so many people were so expert in the very techniques being used to move them. They know, for example, that what a leader demonstrates must match what that leader demands. The Secretary of Defense called for authenticity and rejection of performance, but the event itself was a mandatory performance: fly across the world at enormous expense and time away from posts, and be asked to applaud on cue. Did they see a disconnect? They are expert in distinguishing real threats from noise, having engaged in actual war and fought terrorists. Did they accept President Trump's claim that radical left Democrats in American cities are on par with the foes these warriors face, or prepare for every day? They are experts at judging whether the game is worth the candle, whether an activity's potential rewards justify the time, effort and cost. Did the gathering where no decisions were made, no input requested, no problem solved, justify the trip? Or could it have been a memo? How did they weigh the priority for theater against their time, safety and duty to the Constitution? Leadership is a transaction. You can compel attendance, but you cannot compel belief. No audience has ever been better qualified to judge if that standard was met. And that’s tonight’s CBS Evening News Plus. I’m John Dickerson. Good night.
Where to even begin with Dickerson’s strained and grasping editorial? This is one of those instances where reflexive opposition is the point, demonstrating that there remains significant work ahead at SkyDance before the news division is brought back to a position of credibility.
Dickerson’s analogies and questions demonstrate his lack of understanding with regard to what it is that the military does and what the chain of command is. Hegseth and Trump weren’t “cooking dinner for the best 800 chefs in the world.” They were telling them, on behalf of the American people, that the restaurant is under new administration and that menu is changing.
The top brass may well be experts in all the things Dickerson says they are, we can stipulate to that. But this wasn’t a leadership seminar or a TED talk. The top military brass were not there to weigh, consider, or analyze anything. These generals and admirals, like the men and women that serve under their command, were there to receive lawful ORDERS. And orders they received.
All of this escapes Dickerson’s piety and reflexive anti-Trumpism. The editorial leaves one to believe that Dickerson thinks the military is a corporation, where people work collaboratively and without clear command structure. The Department of War, which Dickerson refuses to name, is no such organization. So it is that viewers are once again served with a heaping dose of false piety disguised as expertise- even if, in this instance, Dickerson doesn’t know what he’s talking about.