Why Won’t the Media Call This for What it Is?

Friends,

Trump’s war with Iran is continuing. Today, Iran launched attack drones at Bahrain — which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters, a major logistical base for U.S. military operations. Iran also struck an oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, its second attack on a ship since Thursday.

Those attacks came after the United States carried out overnight airstrikes on Iranian missile and drone sites, in retaliation for Iran firing drones at a container ship on Thursday as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The continuing hostilities are exposing the mind-numbing extent of Trump’s lies about “ending” his war — that he’s achieved a lasting peace in the Middle East, that Iran no longer has any capacity to fire missiles and drones, that the Strait of Hormuz is reopen to cargo traffic, that Iran is committed to reducing its stockpile of nuclear material and won’t seek a nuclear bomb, and that, overall, the war he launched on February 28 has made America stronger and safer than we were before he launched it.

These lies aren’t on par with his big lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was undertaken by peaceful, patriotic Americans. But his lies about the so-called “end” of his war with Iran could have equally large consequences, because they’re leading many Americans to believe that an end of the war is within sight and that America is stronger and safer as a result of it.

Yet the mainstream media refuse to call him out on his Iran lies.

The New York Times terms what’s now happening a “flare-up of in hostilities” that threatens “to unravel” ongoing “talks to reach a final peace agreement,” and that “neither side seems eager to return to a full-blown war.”

Well, they may not want to return to a “full-blown war” but they’ve returned to hostilities that are blocking the strait and destroying whatever shred of trust diplomacy depends on. And not a word about Trump’s lies.

The Washington Post calls it “the latest threat to a ceasefire and ongoing talks toward a broader peace” — which of course assumes there has been a real ceasefire, and that the talks now underway will result in a “broader peace,” whatever that means. Also not a word about Trump’s lies.

The Wall Street Journal says the hostilities have “added to pressure on a preliminary peace deal already under stress from continued fighting in Lebanon and disagreements over nuclear inspections.” But that assumes there’s already a preliminary peace deal. Has anyone actually read it? And the disagreements are hardly confined to nuclear inspections. What about free passage through the strait? Oh, and here again, no word about Trump’s blatant lies.

My expectations for the mainstream press were already low. From the outset of this war, the public has received half-baked and inconsistent reports. And although the media know better than to rely on any words emanating from Trump’s mouth, why have they given up holding him to account for what he says about the war?

Trump’s war with Iran was a disaster from the start, and it’s so-called “end” is a debacle that Americans need to know about. Trump wants the war to go away, but it won’t because he has strengthened Iran’s resolve, which in turn has strengthened its hand.

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