CNN was accused of pushing out “pro-Iran regime propaganda” by the Trump administration on Thursday after a reporter for the network said it appeared daily life was continuing despite the ongoing war.
Senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen said during a segment that all the shelves in shops are stocked, “even with fresh things,” as he casually held a cup of coffee.
“Fuel seems readily available, and you just don’t see any degree of panic anywhere,” he said.
Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson who slammed Pleitgen’s report while sharing a 30-second clip of the segment.
“CNN appears to now be doing straight-up pro-Iran regime propaganda because someone gave this guy a coffee…” he wrote on X.
Pleitgen shot back at Johnson that he bought the cup of joe.
CNN is currently the only American media outlet in Iran – though the network noted it’s with permission from the Iranian government.
The State Department said in a statement to an NPR reporter that “we encourage media outlets to verify information with official US government sources before publication,” when asked why it considered CNN’s report propaganda.
In CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter’s newsletter, he called the criticism “unfair.”
“The criticism of Pleitgen is unfair and suggests an all-too-common unfamiliarity with the basic tenets of journalism,” Stelter wrote.
“Foreign correspondents want to ‘go there,’ as that old CNN marketing campaign said, and tell the rest of us what’s happening. It was helpful, then, to hear Pleitgen report on everyday life at a gas station along a highway to Tehran.”
Other parts of Pleitgen’s segment also raised eyebrows, including his claim that “we certainly don’t see any sign of order collapsing here.”
Still, he noted while in the back of a car heading through Iran that he witnessed fresh smoke billowing from an airstrike, destroyed buildings and more checkpoints with “heavily armed security personnel.”
Iranian-American influencer Nazanin Nour also took issue with CNN’s report.
“I think one of the reasons there aren’t long lines at the gas stations is because, and I’m going out on a limb here, a lot of people are staying inside because the country’s getting bombed,” the California-based personality with 356,000 followers on Instagram said.
She also said shop shelves are likely well-stocked because “most people can’t afford groceries right now,” in reference to Iran’s collapsing economy that was roiling the nation before war broke out.
The US and Israel are in their 7th day of conflict with the Middle Eastern country.
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