As Gaza continues to crumble and Gazans continue to starve, one might have been forgiven for expecting our mainstream press to cover the United States’ and Israel’s lurch toward war with Iran cautiously, minding the exorbitant costs of vindicating state violence. A close survey of five national news organizations’ coverage of the bombings of Iran, however, reveals reflexively hawkish tones and tactics reminiscent of media reportage in the months preceding Iraq’s invasion twenty-two years ago.
When the Trump administration carried out shock-and-awe bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 21, just over a week after Israel launched preemptive strikes on hundreds of locations inside Iran, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the Associated Press published flurries of articles and editorials that ignored historical and recent context unfavorable to the United States and Israel. Instead, they supplied a lopsided picture hinging on the premise that Iran is a “malign” actor, infinitely less deserving of nuclear arms than either of the ultramodern military allies bombing it. Accompanying this premise came the (perhaps less intentional) one that the Iranian government and citizenry are undeserving of sensitive, impartial analysis.
Over the twelve days in June during which Israel and Iran traded missile fire, the five foregoing news organizations largely shrugged off basic journalistic covenants that might have been seen as favorable to Iran. Absent from the coverage was scrutiny of the legality or validity of assassinations, civilian deaths, infrastructural damage, and threats of regime change within the Islamic republic.
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Auteur: Shaan Sachdev
