After the United States, Israel, and Iran agreed to a ceasefire on Tuesday evening, CNN reported that Iran claimed it had “achieved a great victory.”
That report quickly drew the ire of President Donald Trump and the White House. Together, they labeled the statement a “fraud.”
Trump then took to Truth Social, writing: “Authorities are looking to determine whether or not a crime was committed on the issuance of the Fake CNN World Statement. Or was it a sick rogue player? CNN is being ordered to immediately withdraw this statement with full apologies for their, as usual, terrible ‘reporting.’ Results of the investigation will be announced in the near future.”
CNN pushed back and defended its reporting as legitimate. The network argued it had obtained the statement directly from Iranian officials and would not issue a retraction.
“The statement in question was obtained by CNN from Iranian officials and reported on multiple Iranian state media outlets,” a CNN spokesperson said. “We received the statement from specific official Iranian spokespeople who are known to us.”
The CNN report on Iran’s statement differs drastically from that of the Pentagon and the White House. That statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs states that it supports a two-week ceasefire. It makes no mention of any victory.
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