Ex-CNN Correspondent Urges Trump, Hegseth to Tone Down Attacks on Press Over Iran Coverage: Insults ‘Paint a Target on the Back of a Journalist’

Mark Schiefelbein/AP photo

Former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr argued the Trump administration is putting the lives of journalists at risk with its rhetoric toward the press.

Since the start of the war in Iran, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been especially hostile toward the press. Trump has accused the press of wanting the U.S. to lose the war, insisting that coverage of the conflict has been far detached from reality. Hegseth, on the other hand, has claimed that the press is only concerned with making the president “look bad.” He also took issue with the coverage surrounding the fallen troops in the war.

On a recent episode of The Media BuzzMeter with Fox’s Howie Kurtz, Starr explained how the administration’s comments “can essentially paint a target on the back of a journalist.”

“There are people out there who want to go after the news media, who want to go after reporters,” Starr told Kurtz. “You know this. I think every major news organization has had these kinds of people out there with very antagonistic views towards news media personnel. I think it would be a good thing if the president not only was aware of this — and I’m sure he must be — but took it into account with his statements.”

Shifting her focus to Hegseth, Starr argued that the Defense secretary wants “100% news coverage that is glowing” of Trump and that he “doesn’t want any criticism.”

“The job of the news media in wartime is to cover all the news,” Starr said, “and I don’t think there’s really anything more important than the troops, which he claims is no. 1 on his list, and their welfare and their safety. And when they perish, there is — allow me to say — I believe a moral obligation on the part of the news media, not just to cover the event, but to look behind the curtain to see why it occurred, how it occurred, and what is being done to keep it from occurring again.”

Starr added that the media also plays a role in its relationship with the president, saying:

I think that that is exactly what news executives and heads of newsroom, heads of coverage, that kind of thing, must keep looking at. They need to keep looking to their coverage and making sure that they are satisfied with it. That is essential. You don’t just turn your eyes away and go, you know oh, it’s Donald Trump. That’s not the answer. This is the President of the United States. This is still the strongest military and the strongest country in the world. This is American troops putting their lives on the line at the orders of the commander in chief. So, it has to be taken extremely seriously. Mr. Trump, of course, is trying to improve his coverage perhaps with these exclusives. And I put that in air quotes, phone chats on his cell phone with reporters who call him.

—

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!