n a grotesque close to Sunday’s CBS Weekend News, anchor Jericka Duncan delivered a summary of the history between the United States and Iran that began in 1953 and ended in 1980. In essence, Duncan told half the story. Unfortunately, it was the mullahs’ half.
Watch the editorial in its entirety, as aired on the CBS Weekend News on Sunday, June 22nd, 2025:
CBS News or PressTV? Anchor Jericka Duncan closes out the Sunday Evening News by offering up a US-Iran history that starts with the Mossadegh overthrow and ends with the 1979 hostage crisis. That's less than half the story if you willfully leave out Hezbollah, the Marine Barracks… pic.twitter.com/1prMkhU3jF
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) June 23, 2025
CBS WEEKEND NEWS
6/22/25
10:27 PM
JERICKA DUNCAN: Finally tonight, the U.S. And Iran share a checkered history. In 1953, a U.S. and U.K-. supported coup ousted the country's first democratically elected prime minister after he tried to nationalize Iran's oil industry. In his place, a western backed monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, ruled. And for a time, the U.S. was considered an ally. In 1957, the two countries signed a nuclear cooperation agreement. Later, the U.S. provided Iran with a reactor and the uranium to fuel it. President Nixon visited in 1972, but dictatorship and corruption led to unrest and revolution. In 1979, Iranians ousted the Shah. Their leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, formed a new Islamic Republic. Students would later storm the U.S. Embassy. They held more than 40 Americans hostage for 444 days. It left old wounds, and the scars we see today. Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and the U.S., “The Great Satan.” For now, the world waits for what happens next. That is the CBS Weekend News for this Sunday. We thank you for watching.
Reasonable individuals may conclude that 95% of the script Duncan read off her teleprompter came from an Iranian history textbook, so one-sided was her particular reading of historical context.
As we know, U.S.-Iran history did not begin with Mossadegh’s overthrow and end with the 1979 revolution. So does CBS News.
Hence, it was terrible to watch this particular news item omit the various acts of Khomeinist regime aggression that contributed to the juncture in which we found ourselves prior to Operation Midnight Hammer.
There was no mention of the 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut by Hezbollah, which was Iran’s favorite proxy prior to being decimated by Israel. Likewise, there was no mention of the 600+ American service members that were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as the result of Explosive Formed Penetrators (EFP), along with many thousands wounded. Finally, there was no mention of reports indicating that Iranian kill teams successfully infiltrated our southern border.
Telling the truth about the murderous Khomeinist dictatorship shouldn’t be so hard, unless you’re trying to frame it as the victim of “Aggression.” Likewise, reading the news isn’t hard unless you’re more interested in delivering propaganda to your viewers.
