Obituaries have noted the kindly face Khamenei put on in public. Did anyone, other than credulous Westerners, buy it?
Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at the Western media’s whitewashing of the late Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei, and we cover more media misses.
The ‘Avuncular and Magnanimous’ Dictator
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was many things — religious zealot, brutal dictator, lifelong enemy of the United States — but, as the New York Times and Washington Post emphasized in their obituaries of the late Iranian supreme leader, he went out of his way to appear “avuncular” and “magnanimous.”
Did anyone — other than credulous Westerners — buy the act?
The Washington Post would have you believe that the people of Iran did. The Post’s editors chose to feature a photo of a woman mourning Khamenei’s death on their front page, creating the impression that he was a much beloved leader.
Khamenei was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians — both in his own country and around the world — over the course of his more than three decades in power.
In recent months alone, he ordered the killing of an untold number of anti-government protesters. (Humanitarian groups fear the death toll could be in the tens of thousands.) Reports indicate as many as 1.5 million people took to the streets in Tehran to protest the regime on a single day in January. And a survey taken by the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran in June 2024, long before the collapse of the country’s currency or the widespread protesting in the streets, found a majority of Iranians opposed the Islamic Republic and supported changing or transforming the political system. Only 20 percent of respondents wanted the Islamic Republic to remain in power, according to the survey taken by the independent research group based in the Netherlands.
Scenes out of Iran in the aftermath of Khamenei’s death have highlighted the country’s political fault lines. While many Iranians have quietly celebrated the death, remaining in fear after the deadly government crackdown on anti-government protesters this year, thousands also gathered at a square in Tehran to mourn the late dictator.
One would think that the brutality of Khamenei’s regime — and their single-minded dedication to propping up Islamofascist terror groups throughout the region — would overshadow any image polishing Khamenei did at home. But, as the Times obituary notes, he made the effort — and it often paid off with naive progressives in the west.
“With his spectacles, Palestinian kaffiyeh, long robes and silver beard, Ayatollah Khamenei cast himself as a religious scholar as well as a writer and translator of works on Islam. He affected an avuncular and magnanimous aloofness, running the country from a perch above the jousting of daily politics,” the Times obituary read.
The Times’s description received backlash online, including from Senator Tim Sheehy (R., Mont.) who offered his own amended headline: “Radical Islamic terrorist who murdered thousands of Americans got what he deserved.”
The outlet defended its reporting in a post on X.
“The Times’s obituaries report and reflect lives in full, illuminating why, in our judgment, they were significant. We fairly and accurately include the newsworthy details of each life and death, and don’t treat them dishonestly to score points like you’re trying to do here,” the New York Times communications team wrote in response to a Libs of TikTok post criticizing the headline.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post similarly described Khamenei as “avuncular” and fawned over his “easy smile.” The Post reporter also saw fit to mention the late dictator’s love of literature.
“With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Misérables.’ But like the uncompromising Khomeini, he opposed moderates’ efforts to promote political and social reforms domestically and to secure rapprochement with the United States,” the obituary said.
Khamenei was not, as he repeatedly insisted, actually committed to the destruction of Israel, according to the Post obituary. “Iran did not seek to destroy the Jewish state militarily,” the obituary reads. Instead, Khamenei instead merely sought its “dissolution” through “popular referendum.”
Who can forget the Post’s 2019 reporting on the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whom the paper described as an “austere religious scholar.”
The western media’s indulgent attitude toward terrorists was similarly on display when the “moderate” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed. Reuters reported, “Tough-talking Haniyeh was seen as the more moderate face of Hamas.” But after receiving backlash, it amended the headline to read: “Who was Ismail Haniyeh and why is his assassination a blow to Hamas?” The Guardian, meanwhile, said Haniyeh was a “moderate figure within the [Hamas] movement, one whose role had become vital in sustained diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire.”
And the BBC reported on Haniyeh’s “pragmatic” ways and “tough rhetoric.”
As for Khamenei, The Guardian described the Iranian leader as “an avid reader of western literature — including Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Grapes of Wrath, and even the writings of Leo Tolstoy.”
“But the story that spoke to him the most was Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, which Khamenei once described as ‘miraculous’ and a ‘book of wisdom,’” the obituary added. “He enjoyed other literary works, including Persian poetry, having grown up with his mother quoting the poet Hafez.”
Meanwhile, Trump critic George Conway suggested it is actually the U.S. that is a “terrorist state” after the Trump admin joined with Israel to carry out strikes against Iran over the weekend.
“Perhaps the terrorist state with nuclear weapons is. . . . {checks notes} . . . the United States of America?” Conway wrote on X. In a separate post he said he was “hopeful” that the “war in Iran will bring needed democratic change to . . . the United States of America.”
Rita Panahi, a Sky News Australia host who grew up in Iran but left as a child, delivered a far more appropriate response to the dictator’s death.
“All I have to say is that after 47 years of Islamist tyranny, the dictator is dead, and Iran is on the verge of being liberated. I never thought I would see this day in my lifetime,” she said.
And in what she called “gibberish Persian,” she added, “Your father is a dog, dirt be on your head and rot in hell.”
Headline Fail of the Week
The Athletic recently took readers “Inside the mind of Eileen Gu, Winter Olympics superstar — and so much more.”
The story said Gu, an American-born athlete who competes for China, has won the most gold medals of any free skier and was the “highest earner” at the Olympics.
“With three silvers and three golds to her name across two Olympics, Gu is a freak of nature, extraordinary in every sense of the word. So what is next for a young woman who seems to have it all?” the piece asks.
New Wall Street Journal reporting suggests Gu has been well-paid to represent the CCP. The Bay Area native, along with figure skater Zhu Yi, another U.S.-born athlete who competes for China, received a combined $6.6 million from the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau last year, according to the report. The public budget that accidentally revealed the athletes’ names “didn’t break down their individual payments, though it’s likely that Gu, a three-time Olympic medalist, received a larger share of the funding,” the report said. The budget indicated the sports bureau was set to pay the two athletes a combined $14 million over the past three years.
The Athletic mentioned the Journal’s reporting and acknowledged that some may question her honesty and values because of her financial relationship with the CCP.
Media Misses
- Podcast host Leigh McGowan apologized during a CNN appearance on Friday after she was called out for falsely claiming President Trump said Democrats should be “killed.” During a conversation about Trump’s ban on the use of Anthropic AI by the federal government, the political TikToker said, “I am called a domestic terrorist constantly by my government. My president just stood at the State of the Union and said the Democrats are evil monsters who should be killed.”Conservative strategist Tim Parrish jumped in to correct the record: “Oh, no, no, no. The president did not say that. Wait a minute. You have to be accurate.””He did not say — he said we were the enemy and we were terrible. Would you say that that is fair?” McGowan said. “I was being hyperbolic, and I apologize,” she added after further pushback from Parrish and the host.
- Representative Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas) reportedly had armed security guards remove Atlantic staff writer Elaine Godfrey from a Senate campaign rally last week. Godfrey said she was removed from the rally after being labeled a “top-notch hater” by Crockett’s team.”Right before armed guards escorted me from the rally and left me on the edge of a Texas-county road, I was informed that I was no longer welcome at an event that I had already attended,” Godfrey wrote.Crockett claimed in comments to CBS that there was “no evidence” the reporter was kicked out of the event. The representative also said it’s “silly season” and claimed Godfrey had previously been sued for defamation.