CNN's Stelter Argues CNN Questioning Trump's Success In Iran Bombing Is Uber-Patriotic

Tim Graham
June 29th, 2025 6:51 AM

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CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter caused unintentional laughter in his "Reliable Sources" newsletter Thursday. In his typical role as defender of CNN's viciously anti-Trump bias, he complained that anyone criticizing Natasha Bertrand's anonymously-sourced claims that Operation Midnight Hammer only set the Iran nuclear program back a few months is unpatriotic. The media, they're the patriotic ones!

This was how Brian began: 

Questioning power is our duty

Journalists ask questions, vet the answers and report the results to the public. That’s pretty much the job description. But the Trump administration is claiming that it’s unpatriotic to do so. Today President Trump is pushing for firings and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is insulting journalists to their faces....

Fox's Joe Concha offered the easy rebuttal, since Stelter didn't take this approach to President Biden in decline. CNN's Abby Phillip also took what was clearly the CNN party line. If you question our Trump-loathing, you're the autocrat. 

Stelter continued that they simply must question the White House (well, some White Houses) on their official accounts:

Tapper cited past examples of government deception to say "history has taught us that the most pro-servicemember action we can take is to ask questions of our leaders, especially in times of war. That, for journalists, is the height of patriotism."

Indeed, history is replete with proof that it is imperative to question official accounts. It's patriotic. "What's unpatriotic is trying to scare the press into silence," media historian Brian Rosenwald says.

Trump wants cheerleaders, but...

Both CNN and The New York Times have issued statements defending their accurate reporting about the early US intel assessment that undercut Trump's "obliterated" claims. The reporting has been credibly sourced and cautious.

In response, Trump has charged the press with trying to "demean" the military action, and has claimed that the B-2 pilots were "devastated" by the news coverage. He is far from the first politician to use the military as a shield against fair-minded scrutiny.

"Fair-minded scrutiny" is CNN? Three years of Russiagate and hundreds of interviews with Stormy Daniels & Michael Avenatti, et cetera -- that was "fair"? 

As Twitchy noted, Stelter can't seem to tell the difference between journalism and partisan activism -- or he thinks activism is the very best journalism. We've pointed out before that journalism awards aren't so much about "excellence" as they are about picking the right targets. Nobody has to hand back their Pulitzer Prize for being wrong about Russiagate -- because the cause was just. 

Now Stelter noted the Emmy Awards were "sending a message" by giving awards to 60 Minutes while they've been sued by Trump for their slicing-and-dicing bias toward Kamala Harris: 

Being criticized and sued by Trump automatically makes you a patriot and a hero. No one should evaluate whether or not the reporting is true or "fair-minded scrutiny." 

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