So much of the world’s media has consistently misreported on every aspect of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, exaggerating and misreporting on the kind of casualties, omitting any discussion of the tremendous effort the IDF makes to warn civilians away from areas and buildings about to. be targeted, ignoring the ratio of civilian-to-combatant deaths in Gaza, which sank to a scarcely-believable level of 17:22, or less than 1:1, accepting the Hamas claims about the IDF “firing on and killing” Gazans waiting for aid, continuing to report on a nonexistent “famine” and, worse still, parroting endlessly the claim of a completely fictional “genocide” in Gaza. So it was hardly surprising when that same media, with a handful of honorable exceptions, has in reporting on the Israel-Iran war taken the side of Tehran, and displayed its usual anti-Israel animus. More on how the war is being reported on by most of the media can be found here: “Iran Rains Missiles on Israeli Cities After Targeted Strikes on Nuclear Sites — Media Calls It ‘Tit-for-Tat,’” by Rachel O’Donoghue, Honest Reporting, June 15, 2025:
A troubling timetable of how the media reported the first few days of the war between Israel and Iran:
Thursday, June 12 – Friday, June 13: A Multi-Pronged Assault to Cripple Iran’s Nuclear Program
In the early hours of Friday, June 13, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a sweeping, coordinated offensive against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the officials overseeing it….
CNN reported that Trump had warned Prime Minister Netanyahu to “stop Iran threats,” claiming the U.S. was “ramping up pressure” on Israel to hold off on any military action.
The New York Times echoed this, framing Israel as “ready to attack Iran” in a move that could, they claimed, “further inflame” the region and derail U.S. diplomacy.
The Washington Post ran with the headline “Fears of an Israeli Strike on Iran,” citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials who were “increasingly concerned” that Israel would act “without the consent of the United States,” a move they claimed would doom diplomatic efforts and provoke Iranian retaliation against U.S. assets in the region.
Oddly, those same outlets also reported Iranian threats, including a warning by Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh to strike U.S. bases if talks collapsed—yet these were treated with far less alarm.
What none of the reporting made clear at the time, but has since been confirmed, is that these supposed leaks and briefings about U.S. reluctance were part of a coordinated misdirection campaign designed to mislead Tehran.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, President Trump pulled back the curtain: “We knew everything,” he said, calling the Israeli strikes “excellent” and “very successful.” Israeli officials confirmed the U.S. had been briefed in advance and had given quiet approval, though it withheld direct military support.
Friday, June 13: Media Cries ‘Rogue Israel’ Before Iran Responds by Targeting Civilians
Despite the confirmation from Trump, much of the media clung to the narrative of a defiant, unilateral Israel.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, for example, published an analysis claiming Israel had “ignored direct warnings” from Trump and acted without U.S. involvement, describing the strikes as “against the president’s publicly stated wishes.” The irony, of course, is that these “publicly stated wishes” were never meant to reflect the truth—they were part of the ruse. Liptak, like many others, appeared to mistake strategic misdirection for a diplomatic breakdown.
The Conversation published a breathless analysis accusing Israel of “defying Trump” and “risking a major war.” One is left to wonder: what exactly does The Conversation consider a risk? Iran stockpiling enriched uranium, threatening regional annihilation, and publicly vowing to strike Israel apparently doesn’t meet their threshold. Only Israel’s preemptive attempt to stop it does.
Bloomberg took a similar line, claiming Israel had “expressly disregarded the wishes of Trump”—even as Trump himself, just hours later, confirmed U.S. foreknowledge and praised the mission’s success.
Keep in mind that Trump’s supposed intention to keep Israel from attacking was a fiction, one created in order to convince the Iranians that the Israelis, held back by the President, were not about to attack. In fact, Trump knew about the attack in advance; after the first wave of Israeli attacks he described them as “excellent.”
In their coverage so far of the Iran-Israel war, the media have been weighed and found waning. The false equivalences they make between Israel’s attacks on military targets and Iran’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians, the failure to explain the context, the repeated promises by Tehran to annihilate the Jewish state, which more than justify Israel’s surprise attack, the claim that by preemptively attacking the nuclear program of a country that has been the indispensable supporter of every terror group in the region, Israel was “destabilizing” the area — all of these failures have the same source: a palpable want of sympathy for the Jewish state and a desire to paint it as a warmongering little Sparta attacking its enemies, one by one. It’s a topsy-turvical misrepresentation of the truth. But it’s what we now expect from the world’s media, so much of which is consumed with dislike, or even with hate, for “the colonial settler ethnic cleansing genocidal” state of Israel.
Taffy says
The easy way to sort this out is to take the default position that the MSM including The New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, etc. are lying or misrepresenting, unless proven otherwise.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
My primary sources of news the last 2 weeks about Israel has been the @X handles of Dr Eli David, Ofer Binshtok, Marina Medvin & some others. Outside @X, it has been YouTube channels like JNS news and Ben Shapiro (who I otherwise don’t watch)
The greatest thing about social media is that one no longer has to rely on our spin of what goes on abroad – something that US journalists are genuinely bad at. So I use JNS to follow Israel, Rebel News for Canada, Sky Australia for Australia, whenever I want to follow news about what goes on in those countries. I don’t even use NYT, WaPo, CNN, et al to follow US news, let alone what goes on abroad
Jeffrey r fixler says
Of course, you’re absolutely correct. I too must get my information from social media and podcasts on YouTube. The troubling part of it is there are a ton of anti-Israel – if not downright antisemitic- podcasts emanating from the right. I expect that from the left, but hold the right and MAGA to a higher standard. It’s true these voices from the right represent only about 25% of Republicans, but like the far left , they’re very loud and get an inordinate amount of attention. If the mainstream media had done their job the past couple of decades , and left their politics at home, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
You’re right – one does need to discern which channels are credible. But my point above was that my primary source of news from Israel, including this war, is Israelis and Israeli channels. As it is, Americans do a poor job covering events outside our country, so in this era of social media, it’s a better idea to learn about what’s going on in any country from its own people
Within that country, they too will have their credible and not-credible elements. For Israel, for instance, I picked JNS rather than Haaretz or other Leftist Israeli channels
Jeffrey r fixler says
Of course, you’re absolutely correct. I too must get my information from social media and podcasts on YouTube. The troubling part of it is there are a ton of anti-Israel – if not downright antisemitic- podcasts emanating from the right. I expect that from the left, but hold the right and MAGA to a higher standard. It’s true these voices from the right represent only about 25% of Republicans, but like the far left , they’re very loud and get an inordinate amount of attention. If the mainstream media had done their job the past couple of decades , and left their politics at home, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.
Mike says
The CIA & Obama controls the media
wake up to the truth