• Pete Hegseth calls reporting ‘patently ridiculous’
• Thompson says network will keep reporting ‘the truth’

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon and White House slammed CNN over its Iran war coverage on Friday — with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth saying he looked forward to an ally of President Donald Trump taking over the news network.

Hegseth spent part of a news conference on US military operations against Tehran criticising the media and CNN in particular, urging for what he called an “actual patriotic press”.

The former Fox News host was particularly incensed by a story the channel ran suggesting Washington had underestimated Iran’s ability to disrupt global oil traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Patently ridiculous,” Hegseth told reporters, before adding: “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.” David Ellison is the head of Paramount Skydance, which is set to complete a landmark takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, the current owner of CNN, after beating Netflix in a bidding war.

Earlier this month Ellison vowed to protect CNN’s editorial independence.

His father, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, largely financed the takeover and is also a longtime ally and financial backer of President Donald Trump.

The White House also blasted the CNN story on the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the world oil trade.

“This story is 100 per cent FAKE NEWS,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.

“The Pentagon has been planning for Iran’s desperate and reckless closure of the Strait of Hormuz for DECADES, and it has been part of the Trump Administration’s planning well before Operation Epic Fury was ever launched,” Leavitt said.

In response, CNN chief Mark Thompson said that “our only interest is in telling the truth to our audiences in the US and around the world and no amount of political threats or insults is going to change that”.

Trump himself has frequently lashed out at CNN reporters, particularly anchor Kaitlan Collins, whom he scolded in February for failing to “smile” when she was asking him a question about the victims of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2026