2026-09-12T18:32:29.392Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
据多位知情人士透露，美国国防部长皮特·赫格斯及其部门的政治任命官员曾推动4月在伊朗上空被击落的一架F-15战机的两名机组人员，参与周日备受关注的《60分钟》关于后续营救行动的报道。
两名飞行员最初对接受采访表示保留，其中一人甚至担心可能被强迫参与该节目，而军方官员也对透露营救行动的机密细节持谨慎态度，三位消息人士透露。
其中两位消息人士称，赫格斯办公室的政治任命官员坚决要求两名机组人员接受采访。
但在两名幸存者表达担忧后，赫格斯与他们进行了私下会面，询问他们是否愿意参与，而非强迫他们配合，消息人士表示。最终，其中一名被称为“布拉沃”的飞行员同意接受镜头采访并讲述自己的经历，而另一名“阿尔法”则拒绝参与《60分钟》的报道。
五角大楼尚未公开这两名机组人员的身份，CNN也无法独立确认他们的身份以寻求置评。
这一事件凸显了赫格斯的办公室如何围绕伊朗战争构建叙事，这场战争的支持率日益低迷，给国防部长带来了宣称取得胜利的压力。
这也表明赫格斯在这项工作中发挥了异常亲力亲为的作用——比典型的国防部长更深入地参与了《60分钟》采访的策划过程。
“整个报道完全是谎言，”五角大楼首席发言人肖恩·帕内尔在被问及CNN关于该节目策划的报道时表示。
“是否接受采访完全由每位飞行员自行决定——因为这是他们的故事，”他补充道。“正如CNN所指出的，一名飞行员决定参与，另一名则没有。此外，国防部非常小心地确保作战安全、消息来源和行动方法得到保护。反之暗示则是贬低所有参与和支持此次采访的美军成员。”
包括CNN在内的多家主流新闻机构今年早些时候都渴望采访这两名飞行员，媒体竞争十分激烈。在哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS），拥有25年《60分钟》从业经验的制片人基思·沙尔曼在营救行动当天就联系了长期合作的美军联系人，着手争取采访机会。
游说努力一直延伸到最高层。营救行动后不久，CBS新闻主编巴里·韦斯在编辑部对记者表示，预订这两名机组人员是“头等要务”，她还亲自游说赫格斯，让CBS获得独家采访权，三位CBS内部消息人士透露。韦斯还联系了其他特朗普政府官员。
三位熟悉该节目制作过程的消息人士称，赫格斯及其团队成员非常希望通过两名机组人员的讲述，在节目中呈现此次事件的戏剧性重述。
但整个过程仍耗时数月。沙尔曼和最终敲定采访的记者诺拉·奥唐奈最初曾为上一季的《60分钟》策划相关报道，该季于5月结束。
随后CBS陷入内部纷争。韦斯解雇了多名《60分钟》记者和制片人，并任命尼克·比尔顿为新执行制片人，引发了数周的负面新闻报道。
在韦斯和比尔顿面临压力，需要证明新版《60分钟》仍能推出独家且有影响力的报道之际，与机组人员的专访对CBS而言价值更高。
CBS发言人拒绝为本文置评。
无论哪个政党执政，五角大楼历来都会配合讲述美军英雄事迹的报道——甚至专门设立了一个办公室与好莱坞影视作品合作。但三位消息人士称，在一场持续进行的军事行动期间推动披露细节，令军方官员感到担忧。
周日的节目预告将呈现美军从伊朗营救两名F-15机组人员的内幕故事。
战机飞行员在被伊朗军队击落的数小时内就被找到。但第二名机组人员——武器系统军官——在超过一天的时间里躲避逼近的伊朗军队的抓捕。他曾在仅配备一把手枪、一台通讯设备和一个跟踪信标的情况下，攀爬崎岖地形抵达海拔7000英尺的山脊。
这名飞行员被美国突击队营救，美军飞机同时投下炸弹清理区域。
在赫格斯让两人自主选择是否参与采访后，这名武器系统军官决定接受采访。飞行员则拒绝了。
两位消息人士称，现役军人担忧，《60分钟》的报道是赫格斯办公室试图将美军在成功营救行动中展现的英雄主义用于政治目的。
除了机组人员对参与CBS报道犹豫不决的担忧外，多名消息人士补充道，美军成员还担心可能透露营救行动的机密细节——尤其是在美国军队仍在与伊朗进行积极战斗行动期间。
但消息人士告诉CNN，赫格斯办公室的政治任命官员不顾军方指挥链表达的保留意见，坚持推进采访。
一位熟悉制作过程的消息人士称，美军参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军对《60分钟》采访可能无意间向敌人透露军事战术的可能性表示担忧，但仍决定参与该节目。
凯恩的发言人约瑟夫·霍尔斯特德表示，他不会“评论受议程驱动的消息来源、匿名消息来源的描述，除了重申目前的核心情况：联合部队将尽一切可能确保无人被遗弃。”
韦斯和CBS团队向五角大楼推销此次采访的一个关键卖点是《60分钟》这个美国电视上收视最高的新闻节目所拥有的庞大平台。
在夏季裁员的冲击平息后，比尔顿和 remaining 员工面临9月13日的截止日期——新版《60分钟》季的首个预定播出日期。
韦斯和比尔顿希望将伊朗营救故事作为季首播内容。但在CBS内部，与飞行员的采访直到7月中旬才敲定，即便如此，仍有落空的可能。专访于8月中旬录制完成。
在争取采访的早期阶段，韦斯利用了她与赫格斯的旧交——今年1月委内瑞拉前总统尼古拉斯·马杜罗及其妻子被美军逮捕当日，她亲自安排赫格斯接受了CBS的采访。
一位CBS消息人士称，韦斯试图利用与赫格斯的关系来争取采访这两名飞行员的机会。比尔顿也与赫格斯和华盛顿的消息人士进行了沟通，以期拿下采访。
两位消息人士称，在节目制作过程中，韦斯一直与赫格斯保持联系。
在五角大楼内部，塔米·拉达博——此前在福克斯新闻担任赫格斯的电视制片人，随后随他调任国防部担任高级顾问——主要负责协调《60分钟》的报道事宜，消息人士透露。
据CBS发布的预告片段显示，赫格斯本人也罕见地接受了《60分钟》节目的采访。
该电视台的首个片段预览显示，“布拉沃”安静地坐在镜头前，奥唐奈问他：“你有没有过任何怀疑美军会来救你？”
随后旁白说道：“代号44布拉沃。首次公开。《60分钟》，新一季，CBS周日播出。”
Exclusive: Inside Hegseth’s push to showcase a dramatic Iran rescue on ‘60 Minutes’
2026-09-12T18:32:29.392Z / CNN
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and political appointees in his department pushed for the two crew members of an F-15 who were shot down over Iran in April to participate in Sunday’s highly publicized “60 Minutes” report about the ensuing rescue operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Both airmen initially expressed reservations about doing the interview, with one even raising concerns about the prospect of being potentially ordered to take part in the segment, while military officials were also wary of revealing classified details of the rescue effort, according to three of the sources.
Political appointees in Hegseth’s office were adamant that both crew members sit for interviews, two of the sources said.
But after the two survivors voiced concerns, Hegseth met privately with them and asked whether they wanted to participate rather than forcing their cooperation, the sources said. As a result, one of the pilots, dubbed “Bravo,” agreed to sit for an on-camera interview and discuss his experience, while the other, “Alpha,” declined to take part in the “60 Minutes” report.
The two crew members have not been publicly identified by the Pentagon, and CNN could not independently identify them to seek comment.
The episode underscores how Hegseth’s office is working to craft the narrative around the Iran war, which has become increasingly unpopular and put pressure on the secretary to claim victory.
It also shows how Hegseth has played an unusually hands-on role in that effort — engaging in the planning process for the “60 Minutes” interview far more than is typical for a Defense Secretary.
“This entire story is a complete lie,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said when asked about CNN’s reporting on plans for the segment.
“The decision to participate in the interview was each pilot’s alone — because it is their story,” he added. “As CNN notes, one pilot decided to participate and one did not. Additionally, the Department took great care to ensure operational security, sources, and methods were protected. To suggest otherwise is to denigrate every member of our military who participated in and supported the interview.”
Many major news outlets, including CNN, were eager to interview the pilots earlier this year, and the media competition was intense. At CBS, producer Keith Sharman, a 25-year veteran of “60 Minutes,” reached out to longtime US military contacts on the day of the rescue to start pursuing an interview.
The lobbying effort went all the way to the top. Soon after the rescue, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss told journalists in her newsroom that the bookings of the crew members were “top priorities,” and she personally lobbied Hegseth to give CBS exclusive access, three sources at the network said. Weiss also reached out to other Trump administration officials.
Hegseth and members of his staff were very enthusiastic to broadcast a dramatic retelling of the incident with both crew members, three of the sources familiar with the production of the episode said.
But the process still took several months.Sharman and correspondent Norah O’Donnell, who ultimately secured the interview, originally pitched a story for the previous season of “60 Minutes,” which ended in May.
Then CBS was consumed by internal strife. Weiss forced out several “60 Minutes” correspondents and producers and installed a new executive producer, Nick Bilton, prompting weeks of critical news coverage.
With Weiss and Bilton under pressure to prove that the new iteration of “60 Minutes” would still deliver exclusive and impactful reports, the sit-down with the crew members was even more valuable to CBS.
A CBS spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
The Pentagon, regardless of political party in power, has historically worked to frame retelling of incidents of military heroism — there’s even an office set up specifically to work with Hollywood productions. But the push for detail during an ongoing campaign concerned military officials, according to three sources.
Sunday’s show has been previewed as the inside story of the US rescue operation that extracted the two F-15 crew members from Iran.
The pilot of the plane was found in the immediate hours after the plane was shot down by Iranian forces. But the second crew member, a weapons system officer, spent more than a day evading capture by encroaching Iranian forces. At one point, he scaled the rugged terrain to a ridgeline 7,000 feet above sea level, equipped with little more than a pistol, a communication device and a tracking beacon.
The airman was rescued by a team of American commandos, accompanied by US aircraft dropping bombs to clear the area.
That crew member decided to sit for an interview after Hegseth gave the two the choice of participating or not. The pilot declined.
Uniformed service members have voiced concern that the “60 Minutes” presentation is an effort by Hegseth’s office to use the heroism demonstrated by US troops as part of a successful rescue operation for political purposes, two of the sources said.
In addition to concerns that the aircrew was hesitant about taking part in the CBS report, members of the military were also wary about potentially revealing classified specifics of the rescue mission itself — particularly while US forces are still engaged in active combat operations against Iran, multiple sources added.
But political appointees within Hegseth’s office insisted the interview go forward despite reservations voiced by the military the chain of command, the sources told CNN.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared some concerns about the possibility that the “60 Minutes” interview could, even inadvertently, disclose military tactics to the enemy but decided to participate in the segment nonetheless, according to one of the sources familiar with the production process.
A spokesman for Caine, Joseph Holstead, said that he would not “comment on agenda-driven sources, anonymous sources’ characterizations, other than to reiterate the story here remains that the Joint Force will do everything possible to ensure no one gets left behind.”
A key part of Weiss and the CBS team’s pitch to the Pentagon involved the huge platform of “60 Minutes,” the most-watched news program on US television.
After the shock of the summertime firings wore off, Bilton and the remaining staffers faced a deadline of September 13, the date of the first scheduled episode of the new “60 Minutes” season.
Weiss and Bilton hoped to have the Iran rescue story for the season premiere. But inside CBS, the interview with the pilot was not confirmed until mid-July, and even then, there was a chance it would fall through. The sit-down was taped in mid-August.
Early in the pursuit of the interview, Weiss leaned on a past connection she had with Hegseth, whom she personally booked for a CBS interview on the January day that the ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were seized by US forces.
One of the CBS sources said Weiss sought to build on her relationship with Hegseth in pursuit of the airmen story. Bilton also spoke to Hegseth and Washington sources in an effort to land the interview.
She remained in touch with Hegseth as the episode came together, two sources said.
Inside the Pentagon, Tami Radabaugh, who worked as Hegseth’s TV producer at Fox News before moving with him to the Defense Department as a senior adviser, was primarily responsible for orchestrating the “60 Minutes” presentation, the sources said.
Hegseth, himself, granted a rare interview for the “60 Minutes” broadcast, according to a preview clip released by CBS.
The network’s first sneak peek of the segment showed “Bravo” sitting silently while O’Donnell asked him, “Did you ever have any doubt that the US military was coming for you?”
Then the narrator intoned, “Dude 44 Bravo. For the first time. ‘60 Minutes,’ new season, CBS Sunday.”
