OPINION
Premium

The Press Weeps Over the Passing of the Iranian Peaceful 'Moderate'...Who Murdered Tens of Thousands

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Mar 18, 2026
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Get access to Brad Slager's "Riffed From the Headlines," a daily VIP feature where he looks to bring accountability to the mainstream media. Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!

Matching Media Memorandum – VARIOUS OUTLETS

  • It seems you are all skipping over a significant detail about the man…

As the Iranian authorities continue to be decimated to the point that now hundreds of leaders need to bear the “former” tag, the country is reduced to plucking potential candidates from their Single-A farm clubs. One of the regarded leaders until recently had been Ali Larijani. It was just last week when some excitable members of the media were showing how he was brave - and by extension, the U.S. was weak - when he was shown walking around the streets of Tehran.

What was ignored by these wise pundits is the term “human shield”, because that was Larijani, knowing the U.S. and Israel are loath to hit civilian targets. This was shown when it was announced that with the help of an Israeli airstrike, Larijani had broken his oxygen addiction.

What is rather remarkable is how many in the press are angered by this. 

NEW YORK TIMES – “The kind of strong and pragmatic leader who just might be able to hammer out a peace deal. Not sure, but I wonder if the war will now be harder to end.”

CNN – “Larijani was the kind of person that had the internal ties… to become the person the United States could negotiate with when the dust settles.”

NBC NEWS – “One of the many hats worn by the pragmatist Larijani was his role as a leading negotiator tasked with finding common ground with Washington.”

BBC - “The US may need someone to negotiate with.  No good talking to a headbanger — and Larijani…wasn’t one of those.”

CBS NEWS – “Over time, it removes one of the few insiders who could help shape a political off-ramp. Figures like Larijani are often the ones who help manage not just how wars are fought, but how they end.”

Best of all are those referring to Larijani as a “moderate”. He would be the key official who oversaw the extermination of tens of thousands of protesters since January, but suuurrrrree…moderate.


Gilded Reframe – THE BULWARK

  • Once again, the anti-racist Left promotes cheap illegal labor.

With news coming out that the administration has followed through with efforts to rescind the flawed licensing of illegal alien truck drivers, newly minted Bulwark worker Rampell links to her old haunt, the Washington Post, and bemoans the move.

As she sees things, it is far more important to have cheaper goods than it is to enforce our labor and immigration laws, so these drivers who have been responsible for highway deaths and cannot read road signs need to be on our roads.


Both Kinds Of Standards – NEW YORK TIMES

  • Overlooking a key component in an exhaustive study is rather dim, we gotta say.

In an editorial on recent mass shootings, a pair of criminologists looks into possible motivations to come up with a new disturbing influence. They cite online groups trafficking in real-life crime and grotesque imagery as a contemporary influence on disaffected younger attackers.

Left out of their analysis, tellingly, is the growing tide of trans individuals, which is made stark as they refer to one such male killer as “she” in their editorial.


Reporting On The Mirror – MS NOW

  • …something-something, rearranging deckchairs…

Not even six months into its new era of independence from NBS News, an announcement has come out of a drastic reshuffling of the schedules at the new entity, MS NOW. Affecting the broad portion of its day and night lineups, these are the new configurations, beginning with “Morning Joe” being scaled back from its final broadcast hour:

  • Ali Velshi →to “The 11th Hour // Stephanie Ruhle →9:00am - 11:00am // Chris Jansing promoted to Chief Political Reporter // Chris Hayes adds Monday 8:00pm // Ana Cabrera announced that she is leaving the network entirely in June, when all of the changes go into effect.


Demo-lition Project – CBS NEWS

  • Seems the appeal to the disaffected audience is not paying off.

At “CBS Evening News,” it is looking like the shift at New Year's is not paying off. Much had been made of Bari Weiss stepping in last Fall to lead the news division, and one of her moves was inserting Tony Dekoupil at the desk, and adjusting the coverage to be less left-wing antagonism.

The problem has been twofold. The audience they were hoping to court has not arrived, and those who had been watching are rebelling against the perceived shift from their preferred narratives. The result: Tanking ratings.