President Trump called off an attack on Iran and the mainstream media couldn’t wait to accuse him of having “no intelligible” plan for dealing with the issue.
Progressive liberals and “neverTrumpers” have joined with the mainstream media in an odd alliance of disinformation and slanted reporting to make the President’s job doubly difficult in dealing with the rogue nation whose stated intent is to wipe Israel from the face of the earth.
Here are the series of recent events in the current US/Iran skirmish and the way the media has reported them:
The two countries have been at odds since President Trump canceled former President Obama’s illegal Iran nuclear deal that was accompanied by a $150 million bribe in taxpayer’s money. The media has all but imposed a blackout on that story since that time.
Trump’s cancelation of that deal and his imposition of harsh sanctions have been followed by US intelligence saying that Iran planned attacks on Americans. Following that, Iran bombed oil tankers in a strategic waterway and shot down a US drone over international waters.
In response to those incidents, Trump reportedly ordered airstrikes that he green-lighted only to later call them off.
When the media made this claim, Trump responded in a tweet saying, “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it … [N]ot proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry.”
Vox followed that tweet by citing ‘unnamed’ US officials who offered a conflicting account for why the strike was waved off. According to the mystery source, “B-2 stealth bombers weren’t ready during the time picked — early morning in Iran — to avoid as many civilian and military casualties as possible.”
But on Meet the Press, President Trump told Chuck Todd the press needed to get its facts checked. In an uncharacteristic interview, the President set the record straight pointing out that a mission is never green-lighted until the last possible moment.
“Not greenlighting”, said the President, “doesn’t mean I changed my mind.” Rather, he showed prudence by taking the advice of his generals and military strategists.
CNN, MSNBC, and other left-leaning sources were uniform in their unbalanced reporting that made President Trump appear to be out of control when it comes to dealing with Iran.
Fox News, on the other hand, offered a more balanced reporting of the Trump/Iran affair. Fox & Friends hosts differed on their view of Trump’s wisdom in calling off the air strikes.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade was the harshest in his assessment of the president, tweeting, “They blow up 4 tankers and we do nothing. Then they blow up our drone that costs $130 million and we do nothing. We know it’s not going to end there. So at some point, in the Middle East, no action looks like weakness, and weakness begets more attacks.”
Kilmeade’s co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt said they had faith in Trump’s foreign policy. Doocy said, “The president appears measured and reasonable in saying, ‘OK, you know what, before we do anything, we’re going to try to talk to them one last time.”
The liberal media was lockstep in reporting President Trump and his advisor John Bolton are intent on provoking a war with Iran, Fox star Sean Hannity stressed that Trump “does not want war.” He reported on his nightly show, “If they do not end this hostility, if they do not stop, the mullahs of Iran will feel pain, I predict, like never before. And it will — they will earn it. They will make it happen.”
As Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and the rest of the Trump hating press agreed his only intention was war, Tucker Carlson, who has reportedly spoke directly with President Trump, said on his Fox News program, “The same people who lured us into the Iraq quagmire 16 years ago are demanding a new war, this one with Iran [adding that Trump] to his great credit, appears to be skeptical of this — very skeptical.”
While the mainstream media conspires to paint Trump as an unstable warmonger, at least one network seems to be trying to offer the broader picture of what is transpiring in the continuing war of words with Iran.
How long Fox’s more balanced approach will last is uncertain at best. It’s up us to ensure the truth is told.
