Trump White House Thanks MS NOW for Amplifying Its Iran War Videos

White House communications director Steven Cheung reached out to “thank” MS NOW for broadcasting the administration’s latest war video, which combined shots of actual strikes on Iran with video game footage.

“I don’t say this often, but thank you to @MSNOWNews for playing our videos and showing it’s having a positive effect on polling and messaging,” Cheung wrote on social media Friday.

Mediaite has reached out to MS NOW for comment.

On Friday’s Chris Jansing Reports, the host discussed the latest video mash up with Mark McKinnon, former advisor to George W. Bush.

“The administration’s social media accounts have been very busy,” Jansing said Friday. “And in fact, the team continues to post videos that combine real images of Iran war strikes with video games. Here’s a sample.”

Jansing played the clip that interspersed strikes on Iran with Nintendo Wii gaming video of characters hitting bullseyes with tennis rackets, golf clubs, and baseball bats.

“That video got a lot of blowback from Democrats,” Jansing said, “but there’s this new Washington Post poll, and it finds that opposition to the strikes is actually softening a bit. Opposition dropped in a week by 12%. So, is some of this messaging obviously taking hold?” she asked McKinnon.

“Well, first of all, I’ll just say that, you know, using video games as parallels for wars just it has a desensitizing element to it, which, you know, over the course of time just makes people think, ‘Oh, it’s just like a video game,'” McKinnon said.

“You know, real human beings are being killed on both sides, so, that’s a problematic situation,” McKinnon continued. “And yes, I mean, perhaps some of the messaging is getting through and that’s a good thing.”

A CNN panel also decried the communications strategy; David Sanger of The New York Times said he’s “never seen anything like this, that sort of takes the real footage and tries to basically suggest this is a game.”

Watch the clip above via MS NOW.

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