Western media acts as Trump’s mouthpiece on attack on Iran

“In war, the first victim is the truth.” The phrase, attributed to Aeschylus, father of Greek tragedy, has never seemed so current. Since the start of the joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran in February (28), mainstream Western media coverage has proven to be a faithful extension of the official White House narrative. Skewed headlines and systematic omissions dominate the discourse, while civilian casualties are relegated to cold numbers.

The case of the school in Minab

This distortion reflects an information asymmetry that favors Washington and Tel Aviv, diluting responsibility for possible war crimes. A glaring example is the bombing of Shajareh Tayyebeh Primary School in Minab, southern Iran, which killed between 148 and 171 girls. The action is treated by the Western press as a technical “mistake” — a “target error” based on supposed intelligence failures — rather than an explicit denunciation of a massacre and violation of international law.

Regarding this scenario, journalist Laurindo Lalo Leal Filho states: “At the international level, the alignment with big capital in these media is historic. At critical moments, like the current one, it becomes more explicit. In short, there is a journalistic bias in support of the aggressor countries, the United States and Israel, and the criminalization of the attacked party, Iran.”

War as a promotional “campaign”

From the earliest days, vehicles like BBC e CNN they adopt terms such as “launch attacks” and “sustain attacks”, framing the conflict as a planned and inevitable operation. Iran appears as a passive target, while the USA and Israel are the active subjects who “defend” interests. The language used treats imperialist violence as something technical and avoids words like “bombing” or “massacre”.

Lalo Leal Filho harshly criticizes the stance of the Brazilian media: “The articles are shameful. There are entire blocks on the news programs hiding efficient Iranian responses to enemy attacks. Or criminalizing, without evidence, the government of Iran, to justify external aggression. The media in general, and the Brazilian one with great prominence, does not cover the events. They [as mídias] they are part of it, in the sense of serving as a force of public conviction for one of the sides”.

Journalist Maurício Machado, former communications director and experienced manager at television stations, reinforces the seriousness of the coverage: “I consider it biased and pro-USA. Almost always the versions seem press release of the Pentagon. The other side is almost always missing with exemption. In Brazil, it is a biased herd effect following the group The Globe. If an ET came down here, it would think we were a colony or a state of the United States,” he says.

Altamiro Borges denounces “infanticide”

Altamiro Borges, journalist and coordinator of the Center for Alternative Media Studies Barão de Itararé, classifies the coverage as conniving with a “carnage promoted by Nazifascists Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu”. He criticizes the newspaper’s editorial The State of S. Paulowhich treated aggression as morally justifiable.

For Borges, the bombing belies the thesis of “military precision”: “They say they are only targeting military targets and trying to punish the regime, not the people… But now we are seeing civilian victims; this is a violation of international law and an aggression against the Iranian people. The newspaper expresses full support for the aggression, even though it violates international law and kills hundreds of Iranians, including children.”

Coverage of “Trump’s War” exposes how Western journalism aligns itself with the imperialist agenda, transforming crimes into mistakes. Meanwhile, the truth continues to be sacrificed on the altar of Washington’s geopolitical interests. For journalist Gabriel Priolli, newspapers “are doing what they always do: covering from a ‘Western’ angle. Taking as true what comes from the USA and doubting what comes from the country attacked at the time”, he concludes.