Following President Donald Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities, CNN hastily seized an opportunity to criticize the administration by reporting a leaked early assessment, leaning on several anonymous sources who incorrectly claimed the attack caused minimal damage. Subsequent findings of widespread destruction revealed CNN’s misstep and further highlighted legacy media’s over-reliance on shaky insiders, desperate to downplay conservative wins.
On June 25, CNN published an “exclusive” article from correspondent Natasha Bertrand and two other network reporters questioning Trump’s claims that the strike “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s sites, citing “seven people briefed” on a top-secret early Defense Intelligence Agency assessment.
‘Why did you hire someone so patently averse to the facts, considering she claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation?’
One source told CNN, “So the (DIA) assessment is that the U.S. set them back maybe a few months, tops.”
Two unnamed individuals told the news outlet that the strike did not destroy Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, one claimed that the centrifuges were still “largely ‘intact,’” and another alleged that the uranium was moved before the attack.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN that the initial assessment was “flat-out wrong” and torched “an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community” for leaking the top-secret report to the network.
Still, after later assessments confirmed the administration’s claims that the facilities were significantly damaged, CNN clung to its initial narrative and defended its journalists.
“We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand’s journalism and specifically her and her colleagues’ reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities,” CNN stated. “CNN’s reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump’s own deep skepticism about it.”
“However, we do not believe it is reasonable to criticize CNN reporters for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment and accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest,” CNN’s statement added.
Conservative media critics slammed CNN’s strike coverage, blasting the network and other legacy media outlets for their pattern of leaning on dubious, left-leaning sources who consistently miss the mark, as seen during the COVID-era alarmism, the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop story, and the downplaying of former President Joe Biden’s obvious cognitive decline.
‘They should be prosecuted!’
Curtis Houck, managing editor of Media Research Center’s NewsBusters, responded to CNN’s statement.
“Why did you hire someone so patently averse to the facts, considering she claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop is Russian disinformation?” Houck wrote, referring to Bertrand. “Or perhaps it’s because you know she’s a partisan who will take whatever the Deep State hands her and run with it?”
Chad Prather, host of “The Chad Prather Show,” asked CNN, “How bout all the other things you’ve lied about?”
Conservative commentator Vince Dao wrote, “Firstly, you blatantly misrepresented what that report even said. Secondly, [you’re] literally spreading Pentagon propaganda to justify a war. How does it feel to abandon everything the ‘free press’ stood for 20 years ago? Pathetic.”
As recently as Monday, CNN was still trying to push the narrative that the Trump administration’s attack on Iran was largely unsuccessful.
The outlet published a report stating that Rafael Grossi, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief, claimed it would take Iran only “a matter of months” to restart enriching uranium.
The article reads, “Rafael Grossi’s comments appear to support an early assessment from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, first reported on by CNN, which suggests the United States’ strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites last week did not destroy the core components of its nuclear program, and likely only set it back by months.”
The article cited Grossi’s comments to CBS’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” during which he explained that the strikes caused “severe” but “not total damage.”
“They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there,” Grossi said.
On Friday, a CNN spokesperson told the New York Post that the outlet had received a letter from Alejandro Brito, Trump’s attorney, accusing it of defamation and demanding a retraction. CNN defended its reporting.
Trump called for those who leaked the assessment to be prosecuted.
Last week, in a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!”
A CNN spokesperson confirmed to Blaze News that the outlet received a letter from Trump’s lawyer, responded to it, and rejected the claims made.
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