Since the onset of “Operation Fury,” Western media—even those claiming liberal or progressive labels—have largely retreated into a protective crouch. Despite strikes hitting schools, hospitals, and utilities on a daily basis, there is a striking absence of reporting that dare label these actions as potential war crimes.  

The Rhetoric of Destruction

The deafening silence regarding these illegalities should have shattered on April 1st. In a global address, President Trump threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age,” explicitly stating, “If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants”. Under international law, targeting such civilian infrastructure is strictly prohibited, yet the media continues to treat these threats as standard diplomacy rather than a prelude to war criminality.  

Media as a Weapon of War

Western progressive media has continuously pronounced that they are about honest, independent, and progressive journalism, chasing the truth and holding the powerful to account. This implies honest journalism, fact-checking, providing context to ensure accountability, the maintenance of editorial independence, and a focus in their international coverage on exposing issues so that the cause of justice – in this case, international justice – is served.

This failure to hold power to account in Iran and in all the recent wars waged by the U.S. and Israel is not accidental; it is systemic. While progressive outlets claim to chase the truth, in practice, they often function as a “handmaiden” or even a weapon for Western forces and interests. 

What we see in Western media reporting on the Iran war is not just the absence of their lofty principles but much worse. Even before the war began, there was a consistent pattern of anti Iran regime framing by Western media. We see this through:  

Biased Framing: U.S. and Israeli actions are consistently labeled as “preemptive” or “defensive,” while any Iranian response is dismissed as a “provocation”.  

Omission and Regurgitation: Reports often rely solely on Western official sources while silencing counter-narratives.  

Normalized Violence: Because of the long-standing “shadow war,” the media treats open warfare as a mere escalation of the status quo rather than a humanitarian crisis.  

Strategy Over Humanity

The human cost is frequently buried under “geopolitical chess” analysis. When the Shajareh Tayyebeh Girls’ Elementary School in Minab was bombed, media reports were quick to emphasize the proximity of “military targets”. This framing sanitizes the event, transforming a potential war crime into an “accidental byproduct” of a legitimate operation.  

Coverage prioritizes the status of the Strait of Hormuz or the destruction of bridges over the “ecocide” and civilian displacement occurring on the ground. Meanwhile, Trump’s “finish the job” rhetoric is granted inordinate space. Framed as a moral necessity for victory, it is repeated ad infinitum and given credibility in the belief that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. 

More worrying is the apparent endorsement by US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth who stated during a recent press briefing that the U.S. military would be bound by “no stupid rules of engagement,” aimed at enabling troops to “intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. He had earlier stated that the Department of War would conduct operations with “maximum lethality,” focusing on “unleashing overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy” and noted during his January 2025 nomination hearing that the application of Geneva Conventions must be considered against the “asymmetric, nonconventional environment” of modern warfare.

What we are seeing in Western media reporting on Iran is the effort to create a news environment where the worst allegations – however much they are backed by evidence – about U.S. and Israel war conduct and actions are systematically downplayed or ignored. This is a continuation of a long-term historical pattern where Orientalist stereotypes dehumanize non-Western populations to justify violence. 

Until the global news system is realigned to be truly independent of geopolitical and economic pressures, Western media will continue to work as a tool to legitimize overwhelming state violence.  

© Eurasia Review