On the 24th of June, Former President of the United States Donald Trump slammed two major US media outlets, “MSNBC” and “CNN,” for questioning the effectiveness of the recent US military operation conducted against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Donald Trump has always regarded both of these media channels as biased and dishonest. While addressing the media from the White House lawn, Trump claimed that the strike had destroyed the nuclear facilities while dismissing the media coverage that showed a less clear picture of the event.
Under the Operation Midnight Hammer, several B-2 bombers were used that reportedly targeted three underground Iranian nuclear sites. Trump described this strike as a military success. However, a few days after these claims, a report by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) challenged the former president’s narrative.
The report stated that the strikes had only damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities partially, while the major nuclear materials remained intact at these sites. MSNBC and CNN cited the DIA’s leaked report and claims from the nuclear experts who noted that some sites had not been hit at all by the strikes. In response to these claims, Trump slammed the journalists for insulting the pilots’ efforts and accused them of siding with the enemy. Following this, the Trump administration launched an internal investigation into the intelligence leaks.
Former President Trump claimed that, “I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B-2s. I think that MSNBC ought to apologize. I think these guys, really these networks and these cable networks, are real losers. You really are. You’re real losers!”
Did the US Media Show Bias in Reporting of the US Attack on Iran?
This case has revived debate over how the assessment of national security narratives differs across various media outlets. The monitoring of the coverage reveals a divergence in how the strike was covered. The right-leaning outlets generally framed Operation Midnight Hammer as a “national victory” accompanied by the keywords “heroic” and “decisive”.
However, the center-left media focused on the terms “questionable success” or “politically driven,” reflecting the strategic narrative framing that impacts political discussion.
The public’s opinion on this controversy remained divided, as 56% of Americans strongly disapproved of the US military actions in Iran, according to the Gallup poll. The incident explores how information asymmetry can promote misinformation and political differences at the same time.
With Media Watcher, various organizations and political groups can analyze the variation in cross-media platform narratives associated with an event or a conflict. For governments and institutions looking to identify uncertainty during such events, Media Watcher captures sentiment movements and maps the spread of diverging narratives in real-time.
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