OPINION

The American Press Cheerleading for Iran Has Been Routinely Exposed by Reality

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Apr 08, 2026
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What has been made manifest since Epic Fury was instituted is that our press complex has been decidedly rooting against any level of success. This is not a surprising development, given what we have seen from this industry since Trump took office for a second time. These are the same folks who have come out against curbing government waste, they hate rounding up illegal aliens, they were barking loudly about addressing crime in major cities, and called it racist when rampant fraud was exposed in Minnesota.   

So no, it is not surprising to see news outlets pulling for the underdog in Iran, but it is no less disturbing. This is nothing more than a pure strain of opposition to Trump, but by extension, they are also rooting against our national interest and the military, which has been seen as an unsettling position. Their unhinged support has been so blatant that it was attempted to be addressed on CNN. It was a few weeks ago when Jake Tapper dropped this nugget on his withering show “State of the Union”. 

Instead of tremors, that comment sent out laugh-waves. It is unclear which revelation Mr. Tapper made here. Either he is saying he does not pay much attention to the news, or it could be an admission that he does not have many friends in the industry. Whichever applies, you already lost the argument when you have to come out to say, "We like the U.S." Jake is desperately trying to defend the wave of journalists who have picked up the red, green, and white pom-poms to cheer for Tehran.

What has been seen is the willingness of those in the press to take the word of Iranian leadership and its media at face value, and then to look at any slight advantage achieved as a sign Iran was “winning”. When a couple of fighter jets took on damage but landed safely, this was sold as Iranian superiority. Iran's crippled and fractured military launching missiles with the randomness of hurling spaghetti at the wall was a sign of our failed effort to curtail their offenses.

There was no lack of amusement when the likes of Christiane Amanpour raved as Ali Larijani — ranked #37 on the Iranian leadership depth chart — was out toddling around the streets of Tehran. She found this a remarkable sign of defiance and proof of the US's ineffectiveness in toppling the leadership. That she needed to deny how he was in a throng of citizens serving as a shield was obvious, as days later, once alone, he was cured of his oxygen addiction in a missile strike.

What was an insult to the intelligence of any middle school graduate was those reporters trying to sell the concept of Epic Fury being a quagmire and our military was not achieving success. While reduced to being a media gelding, former ABC News figure Terry Moran typifies this position held by many in press circles.

It had been one month, Moran. Sorry that the activities in the Middle East interfered with your March Madness bracket, but by military standards, this was a blip. But just as the hand-wringing was creating enough friction to start a campfire, the Good Friday shooting down of two jet fighters had the media complex set aflame.

That incident was all the press needed to declare this operation a failure, and that one pilot remained in the Iranian wilderness was held up as more “proof” that the country was winning. The weekend was flush with ignorant military analysis, and then the rescue mission was revealed, and the groans and disappointment heard in the press were amazing. As most proper-thinking citizens marveled at the fact that we moved into hostile territory and constructed an airstrip on the fly to bring in the hardware and troops to rescue our guy, the press was in a snit and then found ways to get crabby about the heroic operation.

As the makeshift airfield proved a fluid scenario and we had to abandon and destroy a number of aircraft upon extraction, this became cause to heap scorn on the military operation. This level of neutered Monday morning quarterbacking falls on deaf ears when two realities are given to these journalists, serving as an effective muzzle.

Count up the two downed planes, add those left behind, as well as the choppers in the rescue effort, and then toss in the pair of previously damaged jets. We may have lost around a dozen aircraft in the five weeks of conflict. This is the tally, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 sorties taking place in Iranian airspace. That is a ratio barely worth counting. Now, let’s pose a question for these self-appointed b******g bean counters: Where was this level of concern for the loss of hardware when Joe Biden had us abandoning billions of dollars' worth of military might in his evacuation from Afghanistan?!

Today, these same global conflict cement heads are scalding President Trump for allegedly bowing to Iran and accepting their 10-point surrender proposal after the announced ceasefire. On their list of demands was to retain their nuclear enrichment programs. The press is telling us that Trump accepting these terms is a sign of utter defeat and proof that this whole affair has set back America as a global power.

These geniuses are becoming clipped by their own stunted reliance on Iranian claims being gospel. Note how the press has to ignore their own prior claims that Iran had no nuclear weaponization capabilities (recall they said we went into Iran with no just cause). But today, they shrug as Iran demands they be permitted to continue the program they allegedly never operated.

Of course, the press has also had to ignore the White House coming out and not only calling this surrender claim completely off the wall, but they indicate firmly that the enrichment program is something we are going in to address. At this point, there is nothing more we need to do than sit back and watch as the media not only continue to step on rakes, but try using those as pogo sticks, not learning from the repeated cranial shots they are absorbing.