By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — Every day brings a new complaint — or three — from the Trump administration about the American news media’s coverage of the Iran war.
President Trump is using words like “criminal” and “unpatriotic” to assail media companies. His FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, is threatening broadcasters’ licenses. His defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is insulting news outlets from the Pentagon press briefing podium.
There’s nothing subtle about their attack-the-messenger strategy. But it may betray some anxiety about the war’s unusually low public approval ratings — or about how the war itself is actually going.
After hearing Hegseth’s criticism last Friday, CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod observed, “It feels like a decision has been made that if the war news isn’t better, better to attack those who report news of the war.”
Axelrod theorized that Trump is “envious” of countries without a First Amendment: “Putin doesn’t have to put up with this!”
Major news outlets are undeterred by the administration’s criticism, recognizing that attempts to deter and discredit wartime reporting are as old as war coverage itself.
As CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thompson recently pointed out in a statement, “Politicians have an obvious motive for claiming that journalism which raises questions about their decisions is false. At CNN our only interest is in telling the truth to our audiences in the U.S. and around the world and no amount of political threats or insults is going to change that.”
That said, the rhetoric is worth monitoring and analyzing, since it’s a window into the president’s worldview and it shapes his supporters’ perceptions.
Trump’s media-bashing, often a dull roar in the background, is an unusually loud howl right now. On Sunday night, he repeatedly dismissed difficult questions about the war by calling stories “fake.” He accused Iran of spreading misinformation but then spread some of it himself.
And the wartime media criticism is coming not just from Trump’s White House but from across his government, with cabinet officials, regulators and MAGA allies all part of a campaign to discourage independent reporting.
Trump cries ‘treason’
Trump went on a tear against “corrupt media outlets” in a 401-word Truth Social post on Sunday evening.
He accurately pointed out that fake, AI-generated videos showing imaginary Iranian military victories have been circulating. News outlets like CNN and The New York Times have been debunking those videos.
But then Trump falsely claimed that Iran has been “working in close coordination with the Fake News Media” to show the videos, including one especially obvious fake showing the USS Abraham Lincoln on fire. He wrote, “You can say that those Media Outlets that generated it should be brought up on Charges for TREASON for the dissemination of false information!”
While the made-up video is easy to find on YouTube, responsible news outlets have not distributed it, contrary to Trump’s charge.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, Trump sounded frustrated by the proliferation of the AI-generated videos. He blamed AI repeatedly and said, “Iran is known for a lot of fake news,” using the “fake news” phrase that he personally popularized a decade ago to demean real US news outlets.
“I actually think it’s pretty criminal,” Trump went on to say, “because our media companies, who have no credibility whatsoever, ar