Critics hit media chorus glorifying Soleimani

Analysis by FPI / January 5, 2020

A senior analyst for Israel’s Channel 12 News Ehud Yaari slammed leftist media personalities and politicians for their criticism of President Donald Trump’s ordering of the drone strike which killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Not only did the leftist American media berate Trump for ordering the strike which killed Soleimani, but they actually glorified the terrorist who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, a journalist noted.

The Trump-hating media “couldn’t pile on enough praise or make enough ridiculous comparisons glorifying Soleimani – from the despicable to the ridiculous,” Dan Gainor of the Media Research Center wrote in a Jan. 4 op-ed for Fox News.com. “He was like Gen. George Patton or the Duke of Wellington (Business Insider), and former French President Charles de Gaulle or the French Foreign Legion (CNN).”

Gainor noted that “CBS This Morning reporter Holly Williams must have used her thesaurus. She deployed in a short segment: ‘a revered figure, an inspirational military leader,’ and, of course, a ‘military genius.’ ”

The New Yorker gushed about Soleimani in heroic fashion, referring to him as “a flamboyant former construction worker and bodybuilder with snowy white hair, a dapper beard, and arching salt-and-pepper eyebrows.”

Gainor noted that The Washington Post “treated Soleimani like he was a legitimate leader.”

The print headline called him a “key Iranian commander,” not a terrorist. The only one calling anyone a terrorist in the story was Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, saying the U.S. drone attack was an “act of international terrorism.”

The New York Times called Soleimani simply the “Commander of Iranian Forces” and, once again included the Iranian quote about terrorism.

“The terrorist responsible for more than 600 American military deaths in Iraq, along with many more wounded, was never once called a terrorist,” by the NY Times, Gainor noted.

"Enough!" Israel's Ehud Yaari said in response to the criticisms of Trump’s order. "Your interpretations are pathetic and infuriating. So you are leftists, you hate Trump and Netanyahu, but you have no limits? The modern-day Hitler was eliminated and you are complaining about it? At least half of the people today understand that you have lost every bit of relevance you may have still had."

Yaari called Soleimani "the most dangerous enemy for the State of Israel since the War of Independence" and compared him to Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi who was the chief architect of the Holocaust, noting Soleimani’s role in supporting Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations which threaten Israel as well as his role in the slaughter of thousands of civilians in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran.

Both the BBC and CNN called killing the terrorist “murder.”

CNN’s “New Day” anchor John Berman called Soleimani’s killing a "murder," then quickly changed it to "assassination."

BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet gave a generally neutral report until she noted how the escalation between the U.S. and Iran “ended with the murder of Qasem Soleimani.”

Leftist media praise for the Iranian terror leader was not new, Gainor noted. “Back in 2017, Time magazine piled on the praise, saying Soleimani was ‘James Bond, Erwin Rommel and Lady Gaga rolled into one.’ ”

Following his demise in the drone attack, others hailed Soleimani as “revered” or an “icon.”

New York Times writer Farnaz Fassihi tweeted about a “Rare personal video of Gen. Soleimani reciting poetry” that was “about friends departing & him being left behind.” She then got mad that people criticized her for humanizing a monster.

Gainor noted that “the worst CNN moment came not on TV but online. CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins wrote a piece so insipid that it should be used in journalism schools about what not to do in major news events. Her story focused heavily on what the president had been eating during the attack.”

Here’s how one paragraph began: “As meatloaf and ice cream were served, the Pentagon confirmed….”

Collins also reflected back to another attack and how “Trump went into great detail about the chocolate cake he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping.”

“In fact, the latest story was almost entirely a rehash of that previous event and the ‘new’ part of the news was really just one more way for CNN to mock the president who had just gotten rid of a terrorist responsible for the deaths of more than 600 Americans,” Gainor wrote.

CNN Politics even tweeted the Collins story: “President Trump dined on ice cream as news of the airstrike broke.”

Free Press International