These days, even when President Donald Trump does something undeniably good for the nation and/or the world, the media finds a way to spin it against him.
But apparently, the bombshell news of the Trump-ordered killing of Iranian military Gen. Qassem Soleimani was nearly too much to handle. T. Beckett Adams of the Washington Examiner shared a sampling of the media’s ridiculous takes in the coverage of Soleimani’s death.
Stop the presses: Trump ate ice cream
Adams noted a ridiculous report from CNN on Friday that was headlined, “President Trump dined on ice cream as news of the airstrike broke.”
President Trump dined on ice cream as news of the airstrike broke https://t.co/iP5fbnSfDH pic.twitter.com/SmrqI6zN0Y
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 3, 2020
That report provided a critical account of how the president dined on “meatloaf and ice cream” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at the same time that reporters were learning of the airstrikes against the Iranian terrorist that had occurred earlier in the evening.
The report ludicrously went on to critically recall how Trump had similarly eaten chocolate cake with Chinese President Xi Jinping while hosting him at the same resort during 2017 when missile strikes had been launched into Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack on civilians.
Coinciding with that was an absurd take from CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who tweeted on Friday a quote from the president and added his own two cents: “Trump: ‘We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.’ (Not how the Iranians see this).”
Trump: “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.” (Not how the Iranians see this)
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 3, 2020
Stellar reporting there, Captain Obvious.
WaPo: “Revered military leader”
The Washington Post wasn’t any better. A tweet linking to a WaPo article was captioned: “Breaking news: Airstrike at Baghdad airport kills Iran’s most revered military leader, Qasem Soleimani, Iraqi state television reports.”
Breaking news: Airstrike at Baghdad airport kills Iran’s most revered military leader, Qasem Soleimani, Iraqi state television reports https://t.co/NbZW4DaWvD
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 3, 2020
The line is reminiscent of the jaw-dropping WaPo description of the deceased Islamic State group terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar” after he was killed on Trump’s order in the fall.
The actual article was not much better than the headline, either. Adams noted that it took the Post 16 paragraphs before it even once mentioned Soleimani’s lengthy history of anti-American terrorist activities and his responsibility for the deaths of hundreds of Americans during the Iraq War.
Defending the indefensible
Arguably the most ill-advised piece of media coverage about Soleimani, however, in Adams’ view, came from New York Times reporter Farnaz Fassihi, who on Friday shared an older video of a soft “humanizing” interview of Soleimani reciting poetry and lamenting the friends he lost over the years.
It is almost impossible to imagine that American journalists would openly side with authoritarians and terrorists over a U.S. president, but such is the reality in the current day when the media’s hatred for Trump takes precedence over everything else. Sad.
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