Name: Trump government escalates attacks on US media over Iran war | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-20T17:18:28.000Z
Duration: 11 min 13 s
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A growing clash between the White House and the press is unfolding as the war with Iran continues.

President Trump and his allies say media coverage is biased and misleading.

Adverbs of degree

We'll get the views of a veteran White House reporter in just a moment.

But first, here's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking today.

I stand here today speaking to you, the American people, not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin a dishonest and anti Trump press will stop at nothing.

We know this at this point to downplay progress, amplify every cost, and call into question every step.

Well, my next guest knows what it's like to confront from the front row a US President with hard questions.

Frank Cesno was a White House correspondent before he became CNN Washington Bureau Chief in the 1990s.

He is now a professor of Media and Public affairs at George Washington University.

Frank, it's good to have you on the program again.

He's commander in chief in the war against Iran and also in his battle against much of the news media.

Take a listen to what he said four days ago.

Iran is known for a lot of fake news, and they deal with our fake news.

And I actually think it's pretty criminal because our media companies, who have no credibility whatsoever, are putting out information that they know is false, that it's a very dangerous thing for the country.

I think they could be in serious jeopardy.

I mean, all US Presidents, they try to shape the narrative during a war.

Now we've got Trump equating the reporting done by the news media with acts of treason.

And it's incredibly disturbing because in the past, when presidents and administrations have taken the United States and frankly, the world to war, they have understood that they need to build and maintain public opinion and global opinion, and

And they have understood that at some level, even though they want to spin events, credibility matters.

And if what they are saying is counter to what people are seeing on their screens or experiencing on the ground, credibility is undermined, and

And that's what's different and dangerous here, is you've got the President, United States saying that there is a deliberate effort to misrepresent what people are actually seeing with their own eyes.

And you know that's not just about information, as I say, that's about credibility, public support, and

It feels like, too, that there's a clear push here for alignment.

I mean, is the expectation now that the media should support the war effort rather than scrutinize it?

Yes, I think that is something that is probably similar across administrations, from what I've seen.

I mean, every, you know, I covered the first President Bush when he went to war to push Saddam Hussein and Iraq out of Kuwait, and

second President Bush when we did that in Grenada and all this other kind of stuff.

They want the media to be supportive and to craft and to convey the narrative that they, in the White House or the Defense Department are trying to convey.

But they also understand that bad things are going to happen, that people are going to die, that setbacks are going to take place, and

that they need to confront that and acknowledge that and recognize that that is part of the story as well.

The narrative that's coming from the White House and elsewhere is everything is great.

Whether we need allies or not, none of this matters.

And they are not confronting and embracing the complexity, the nuance, the setbacks that we're already seeing.

Yeah, I mean, things have been turned around, haven't they?

I mean, you would think that journalists would hold people, elected officials to account, but

now accountability is being reframed as political opposition.

I mean, reporting the news is almost tantamount to being an enemy of the people.

I mean, that is how extreme it has become.

I mean, the other day, the chairman of the Federal Communication Commission said that broadcast networks might lose their license because he and the administration don't like the way they are reporting the story.

Well, first of all, he doesn't have the power to do that.

this would be a very long separate conversation where we could actually look at what is the coverage, what is their problem with that coverage, and

is there deliberate misleading going on here or mis reporting?

And by the way, we now have a media in this country where much of it is the media that this administration embraces, that is a purely partisan media.

And so the media landscape itself has changed substantially.

But the fundamental issue here of reporting the news from the war zone as things are happening, who's attacking whom, with what result?

Those are the facts of the story that need to be reported and those should not be assailed as some kind of partisan thing presuming that they're being presented in the right way.

maybe if you can't control the narrative directly, maybe you can control the institutions where that narrative is created.

Who owns the media should decide what the media gets to say.

I mean, that's what we've been hearing a lot in this administration and it seems to be pushing that further and further.

I want you to take a listen to what the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last Friday about the media or more fake news from CNN reports that the Trump administration underestimated the Iran war's impact on the Strait of Hormuz.

For decades Iran has threatened shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is always what they do hold hostage.

The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.

So we pulled that by because of David Ellison.

For people who don't know David Ellison, he is the Paramount Skydance CEO whose company is acquiring or could be acquiring CNN parent Warner Brothers Discovery.

Now he is the son of Oracle co founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison.

So you see there's a connection here all the way to the White House.

And if you listen to Pete Hexith, it sounds like the administration would like to change the DNA of cnn.

I don't think it will because Ellison also the other day said that he wants an independent news organization, cnn.

Paramount does have CBS News and that has somewhat changed its tone since the time.

There's plenty of reason and plenty of space to criticize CNN and to suggest better reporting and better ways of doing it.

It's welcome from the outside, even though sometimes harsh and whatever.

But when I hear Pete Hegseth speaking like that, the way you put up.

Rather than spending your time trying to shoot the messenger, which has been a consistent messaging tactic of this administration, how about a serious consideration and discussion with the American people in the world of exactly what did you know about what was the risk of the Strait of Hormuz about what can be done to open that up?