{"id":6250,"date":"2026-03-17T09:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/6250\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:08:15","slug":"trump-team-pushes-media-to-tell-iran-war-story-the-white-houses-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/6250\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump team pushes media to tell Iran war story the White House’s way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through lectures, scoldings and outright threats, President Donald Trump and his aides are ratcheting up the pressure on journalists to cover the war in the Middle East<\/a> the way the administration wants.<\/p>\n

The president has fumed on social media about stories he doesn\u2019t like and berated a reporter on Air Force One. The government\u2019s top media regulator has warned that broadcasters risk losing their licenses if they don\u2019t stay away from \u201cfake news.\u201d Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have both questioned the patriotism of news outlets because of their reporting.<\/p>\n

Trump has complained about war coverage in both specific and general ways. In a social media post, he said news reports exaggerated the damage to planes that were attacked by Iran at an airport in Saudi Arabia. He attacked \u201cCorrupt Media Outlets\u201d for falling for AI-generated false reports created by Iran and said the media \u201chates to report\u201d how well the U.S. military has performed.<\/p>\n

All presidential administrations tangle with the press; it\u2019s the natural byproduct of journalists\u2019 watchdog roles in a democratic society. But the incidents of the past few days speak to a hostility toward the very idea of being questioned \u2014 in a way that, some say, scratches up against the First Amendment itself.<\/p>\n

A contentious gaggle on Air Force One<\/p>\n

Meeting with reporters on Air Force One while returning to the White House from Florida late Sunday, the president objected to a question from ABC News\u2019 Mariam Khan about a fundraising message that used a photo taken at last week\u2019s dignified transfer ceremony of the remains of U.S. service members.<\/p>\n

Khan was working as the pool reporter on the plane, but when she told Trump she was with ABC, he said: \u201cI think it\u2019s maybe the most corrupt news organization on the planet. I think they\u2019re terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> cited Trump\u2019s Truth Social message about the planes struck in Saudi Arabia in warning news outlets to be careful about what they report.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions \u2014 also known as fake news \u2014 have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,\u201d Carr wrote on X over the weekend. \u201cThe law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their license if they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades of court decisions have generally sided with the press over government attempts to regulate the content it produces. But Carr said making changes is in the best interest of legacy media outlets because so many people don\u2019t trust them. <\/p>\n

His ability to make changes, however, is limited. <\/p>\n

The FCC does not regulate networks like CBS, NBC and ABC \u2014 although it does have the authority to reject the licenses of individual affiliates of those networks when they come up for renewal. Cable news networks CNN, Fox News Channel and MS NOW are not under the FCC\u2019s purview. The Trump message that Carr retweeted mentioned only The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal specifically, and the FCC has no authority over newspapers.<\/p>\n

Punishing a television affiliate for war coverage that Carr objects to is likely to run afoul of the law, noted First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams in an interview Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe broadcast media is always at risk of a sort that newspapers are not. But at its core, they are protected by the First Amendment,\u201d Abrams said, \u201cand these statements by the chairman seem to me are directly threatening First Amendment interests and First Amendment principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abrams said he\u2019d argue that robust war reporting is just the sort of public interest work that television stations should be doing to justify their licenses.<\/p>\n

Intimidation may be Carr\u2019s motive. And that doesn\u2019t have to mean intimidating a news outlet to pull its punches, said Barbara Starr, a former CNN Pentagon correspondent. \u201cThe risk is the climate they create,\u201d she said. \u201cAre people going to be afraid to talk to reporters? Some of them will be, and that\u2019s a serious matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

What kind of reporting is expected from \u2018patriotic\u2019 news outlets?<\/p>\n

Trump said on social media that he was thrilled to see Carr looking at the licenses of the \u201chighly corrupt and highly unpatriotic \u2018News\u2019 organizations.\u201d Their efforts were endorsed Monday by hosts of the influential \u201cFox & Friends\u201d morning show on Fox News Channel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president has said enough with this coverage, from other networks that are not telling you the truth, that are so negative about what is going on,\u201d said Fox\u2019s Ainsley Earhardt, without specifying the outlets she was referring to. \u201cThis is a pro-America fight, and every network needs to get on board with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth, in his most recent Pentagon war briefing, specifically attacked CNN. Under his administration, most legacy news outlets have been thrown out<\/a> of their regular spaces in the Pentagon press room because they would not agree to his new rules that he said restricted their work. Some reporters from exiled outlets are allowed back for briefings, although Hegseth seldom takes their questions. Without an explanation, still photographers<\/a> have been banned from briefings.<\/p>\n

Hegseth said a CNN story about the administration being unprepared for Iranian attacks on the world\u2019s oil supply was ridiculous. He offered his own edits of headlines that a \u201cpatriotic press\u201d should use onscreen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sooner that David Ellison takes over that network, the better,\u201d Hegseth said, in reference to the Paramount Global chief, whose company is expected to take over ownership<\/a> of CNN. The administration is hoping that will result in more Trump-friendly coverage.<\/p>\n

Mark Thompson, CNN\u2019s chief executive, said the network stands behind its work. \u201cPoliticians have an obvious motive for claiming that journalism which raises questions about their decisions is false,\u201d he said. \u201cAt CNN, our only interest is telling the truth to our audiences in the U.S. and around the world, and no amount of political insults and threats is going to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starr, now retired from Pentagon reporting, said she sees journalists consistently breaking stories despite the limited access and hostility toward their work under the current administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has always been the case,\u201d she said. \u201cThe level of intimidation has definitely ramped up and, in response to that, the commitment to the First Amendment and quality journalism has ramped up even further.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http:\/\/x.com\/dbauder<\/a> and https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/dbauder.bsky.social<\/a>.<\/p>\n