Karoline Leavitt's Unfair Criticism of CNN's Coverage

When Americans die, the administration is going to get questions.

Much like her boss, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt likes to play the hits. Bashing mainstream media networks like CNN for relentlessly negative coverage of the Trump administration is a tried-and-true strategy on the right—and conservatives often raise some fair points about media double standards.

But some of this is just griping. While it's true that the mainstream media covers President Donald Trump very negatively, the media also covers everything with a powerful negativity bias. This first became evident to me while watching local news, where stories of killings, assaults, and abductions always generated attention that was disproportionate to the likelihood of any of these things occurring. In a very literal sense, that's because the news consists of things that happen, rather than things that don't happen. "No One Died" is not a news headline; "Someone Died" is. This remains true even if "No One Died" is the more common state of affairs. Most non-journalists have probably heard about this phenomenon, which is often colloquially known as if it bleeds, it leads.

Excessive coverage of negative news can warp people's perspectives on how likely it is that bad things will happen. When I was much younger, throughout the '90s and '00s, Americans were living through a massive drop in violent crime, which declined by about fifty percent after 1992. Most people were unaware of this at the time, and partly due to local news coverage, mistakenly believed crime was getting worse.

That's a long way of saying that while I understand where Leavitt was coming from on Wednesday, she was way off base in her criticism of CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who pressed Leavitt to defend Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's blasé dismissal of American casualties from retaliatory Iranian strikes.

???? NOW: Karoline Leavitt UNLOADS on CNN when Kaitlan Collins defames Hegseth, falsely claiming he "complained" about those reporting on our fallen troops

"That is NOT what the secretary said and you know it"

"The press ONLY wants to make the president look bad…ESPECIALLY CNN"… pic.twitter.com/vU4fu8W3Sd

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 4, 2026

Reporters and commentators who note that American servicemen are dying as a result of Trump's decision to authorize Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran are not playing some gotcha game. Those lives matter and Trump officials should be confronted by the reality that they are now dead. It's not CNN's fault that Declan Coady, a 20-year-old member of the U.S. Army Reserves—who was born well after 9/11—has lost his life.

We are heartbroken to learn that Declan Coady—a well-loved and highly dedicated Drake University student studying information systems, cybersecurity, and computer science—was confirmed to be among the six U.S. service members killed in Kuwait on Sunday. He has bravely served in… pic.twitter.com/UyBoP4jNMB

— Drake University (@DrakeUniversity) March 4, 2026

The truth is that the administration's decision to take out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials has invited attacks on American troops all over the Middle East. Trump, Hegseth, Leavitt, and the others are welcome to offer justifications for why the U.S.' strategic aims in Iran are significant enough to render this loss of life acceptable. But they can't be mad when they get asked this question—particularly since the administration has done a terrible job of explaining the rationale for war against Iran in the first place.

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Comments

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

No offense robby, but your headline is wrong.

Media is biased. They pick who they choose to write about. Nyt, cnn, walo ignore deaths based on subjects they dont want to touch, like angel families and those murdered by illegal aliens.

With wars the media bias between Lybia, Ukraine, etc is much different than this Iranian coverage.

Even their obituaries are slanted. Look at how wapo and NYT covered the Ayatollah.

It is fine for Karoline to point this out.

You journalists dont like admitting your biases are obvious. You'd be seen as more honest if you would admit it.

[Social Justice is neither]

Hell, for GWB they had daily death counters then Obama takes over and suddenly there are 8 years of no military deaths mentioned.

Or look at how they relentlessly argued Trump was mentally unfit for office for his first term because they don't like the policies then just as relentlessly hid, downplayed and justified Biden's obvious decline.

[MasterThief]

Robby can't go that far in condemning the media because he and Reason are guilty of much the same biases and framing. In fairness to Robby, he is one of the better ones here, but he also fails to truly criticize the left.

[damikesc]

I miss the old COVID death count that seemed to disappear soon after 1/20/21.

[MWAocdoc]

I take exception to the assertion that US attacks on Persia "invited" attacks on our military in the region. What about all the "uninvited" attacks on our military in the region before our attacks on Persia? What about all the attacks on our military in the region that were sort of, maybe in response to some other perhaps provocation by The Donald? Oversimplification here does not strengthen your case.

[Dillinger]

>>The truth is that the administration's decision to take out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials has invited attacks on American troops all over the Middle East.

this is opinion not truth. your ignorance is dangerous.

[Social Justice is neither]

In Robby the retard's world the Iranian regime never murdered Americans or paid those who would. The risk comes solely from not kowtowing to the Iranian regime for some unspecified reason.

[Longtobefree]

In Robbie's world, an Iran with nukes is somehow a good thing.
I don't want to live on that timeline.

(PS - When the Muslims take over, stay away from two story buildings)

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

The multi decade list.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/03/the-iranian-regimes-decades-of-terrorism-against-american-citizens/

[Longtobefree]

All criticism of CNN is justified.

[Use the Schwartz]

This is pretty much where I am.

[Incunabulum]

>When Americans die, the administration is going to get questions.

Like the sort of questions that got asked when Benghazi was bombed in retaliation for Obama's totally legal, not a war, no boots on the ground, kinetic military action?

Should Trump blame it on a Youtube video? Or go with the fan favorite 'what difference, at this point, does it make?'

[Uncle Jay]

So, who is further to the left?
CNN or Reason?
I can't decide.

[JesseAz (RIP CK)]

Reason.

But only because Scott Jennings exists.

[Use the Schwartz]

"Fair" goes in the same garbage heap as "deserve" and "equity."

Not a political response BTW - it just is.

[MollyGodiva]

Karoline Leavitt is a massive liar. It is impossible for the media to cover such a liar without the liar looking bad.

[Use the Schwartz]

I remember all your criticisms of Karine Jean-Pierre, boy you had some doozies! Internet burns for the ages! ChinaGodiva snap-snap-snapping and head swingin'!

Oh wait, no you didn't.

[Ersatz]

hypocritical partisan hacks gonna hack... should you have expected otherwise?

[Doug Heffernan]

It won't be a problem for much longer. With the upcoming change in ownership, what remains of CNN after whatever drastic cost cutting measures will make CNN something like Fox News Jr. Leavitt may become a fan of the network.