NewsNation host Chris Cuomo criticized The New York Times on Thursday over an article headline he said misrepresented the success of President Donald Trump’s June strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The NYT published a Thursday report headlined, “Some of Iran’s Enriched Uranium Survived Attacks, Israeli Official Says,” weeks after a U.S. airstrike on several Iranian nuclear facilities. Cuomo argued on his show “CUOMO” that the outlet misled readers by implying the strike was a failure — while burying information that undermines that narrative.
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“Now, that’s a ‘We’re screwed’ headline, right? That’s a ‘Uh oh, they can make a bomb still.’ Right? Right? They know that. They know you’re going to take it like that,” Cuomo said. “The perception is Trump failed and the regime can make a bomb. What’s the reality? Deep down in the piece, deep down — you had to read this one.”
The NewsNation host asserted that 60% of people only read the headline of an article and only 25% read half of it.
“Do you know who knows that? The Times and other dirty people in the media,” he said. “That’s why buried down in the piece where they know you won’t read, but they can cover their hiney, The New York Times writes that the equipment needed to enrich the uranium to make a nuke had been ‘damaged or destroyed, probably beyond repair.’”
“A little different than the headline, huh? And they say — they quote an Israeli official in the headline, right?” Cuomo added. “Well, I guess it wasn’t the same one because Israel is not concerned because ‘any attempts by Iran to recover’ the uranium would be ‘detected — and there would be time to attack the facilities again.’ Wap wa. Talk about perverting perception to distort reality.”
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Political analyst Mark Halperin also criticized both CNN and the NYT on “The Morning Meeting” in June for using an early Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment of the damage the strike inflicted to portray Trump as a liar.
Trump had quickly asserted after the bombings that they “totally obliterated” Iran’s crucial nuclear sites, but both outlets published articles, based on the intelligence report, finding that they may have only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months.
Both CNN and The New York Times used unnamed sources for their reports and noted that the intelligence assessment contradicted Trump’s assertions.
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However, DIA, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Iranian government all contradicted CNN’s article on the leaked preliminary damage report, generally claiming that the strikes inflicted significant damage to Iran’s nuclear program.
The DIA also later described its assessment as “low confidence.”
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