POLITICS · The American Take
The Story the Networks Dropped After One Day
ABC and CBS each gave the Navy's disclosure of eight suicide attempts in the USS Lincoln strike group one evening, NBC Nightly News carried none of it in the broadcasts we checked, and Congress kept asking questions.
On the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 23, the CBS Evening News told viewers that, according to a letter from the Navy's acting secretary, there were eight suicide attempts by sailors across the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group "during that long 10-month deployment." The next night, ABC's World News Tonight said eight sailors attempted to take their own lives during a "grueling ten month deployment" tied to the war in Iran. (Both quotes are from closed-caption transcripts of the broadcasts.) That is where the evening-news story, for the most part, ended.
What happened
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed the number in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Cao wrote that there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group since the beginning of the deployment, according to Navy Times. CBS reported that he also wrote that no service members died by suicide during the deployment.
The Navy's side deserves to be stated plainly. A Navy official told ABC News the number of attempts is "not out of the norm for a long deployment." Adm. Brad Cooper, per ABC, said the Lincoln has "among the lowest number of cases related to mental health" among the 11 active carriers, while acknowledging long deployments are "uniquely challenging." Navy Times, citing Cao's letter, listed the group's mental-health resources: five chaplains, one psychologist, one clinical social worker and three behavioral health technicians, among others. In August, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said reports of sailor distress had been "completely misrepresented," according to Navy Times.
What the evening news did next
To check the "dropped" claim rather than assume it, we searched closed-caption transcripts of network evening newscasts archived by the Internet Archive's TV News Archive (recordings from Bay Area affiliates of CBS, ABC and NBC) for the words "Lincoln," "suicide," "sailors" and "Navy."
CBS carried the story on Sept. 23 and, in the broadcasts we searched for Sept. 24, 25, 28 and 29, did not return to it. ABC carried it on Sept. 24 and, in its Sept. 25, 27 and 29 broadcasts, did not. (ABC's Sept. 29 broadcast mentioned the Navy only in a report about a separate landing mishap aboard the USS Eisenhower.) NBC Nightly News is the exception to "one day": in the broadcasts we searched for Sept. 22 through 25, Sept. 28 and Sept. 30, we found no mention at all. NBC News did publish an online report under the headline "8 Navy members attempted suicide on the USS Lincoln during extended deployment, military official says," which we saw in search results but could not open.
That is not every broadcast. We did not review morning shows, weekend editions or every night, and network websites are a separate question. The finding is narrow: in the evening newscasts we checked, two networks gave it one night each, and none returned to it.
What stayed newsworthy
Plenty happened after day one. On Sept. 25, Gillibrand and Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., called for hearings, the Spokesman-Review reported. The same day, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent a letter to Cao demanding answers by Sept. 30. Blumenthal alleges that when he asked about medical issues on Sept. 18, the Navy's answer did not mention the suicide attempts, and that Cao told Senate Armed Services Democrats about them days later. That is Blumenthal's account; we found no published reply from Cao.
By Sept. 28, Deseret News reported, no hearing date had been announced. Cao wrote that decisions to extend deployments are "driven by dynamic global security environments," Deseret reported. Military Times reported on Sept. 30 that the first ship of the strike group, a destroyer, had returned to Pearl Harbor on Sept. 29. ABC's own correspondent said on air that "lawmakers on both sides" wanted accountability.
Our Take
This section is opinion.
We are not claiming a blackout or a cover-up. ABC and CBS reported the story, and the Navy put the number in writing to a senator. The record we can document is more ordinary and, in some ways, more troubling: a one-night news cycle for a story about what a long war costs the people fighting it.
We are skeptical of war unless it is necessary, and we are skeptical of federal bureaucracies, including the Pentagon's. A carrier group kept at sea for roughly ten months is not a footnote. If a war is necessary, the case belongs before Congress, and the full cost, including the strain on sailors and their families, belongs in that accounting. Holding hearings is not a partisan attack on the commander in chief. Republicans who say they back the troops should be as eager to ask these questions as the Democrats who asked first.
Fairness cuts both ways. Eight attempts across a strike group is a tragedy even if the Navy is right that it is not unusual for a deployment this long, and a Navy that says it is not unusual should be willing to show Congress the data. We would also note that the networks we distrust gave this story one evening each, while the questions it raises are still open.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
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