CNN’s Erin Burnett displayed some bizarre and problematic moral equivalency on Wednesday as she hosted OutFront from Tel Aviv, Israel. Recapping the days’ events, she sought to compare an American submarine sinking an Iranian destroyer to Iran bombing neutral countries as proof the conflict is “escalating.”
Burnett began, “This as the war is escalating tonight, as I speak, 10 countries across northern Europe, northern Europe, you heard me right, are preparing a plan right now to evacuate civilians across borders amid this war with Iran that is now spreading thousands of miles from where it began, in Khamenei's compound in the center of Tehran Saturday morning.”
CNN's Erin Burnett tries to equate the U.S. sinking an Iranian destroyer with Iran targeting neutral countries, "The United States today putting out a video of a torpedo exploding an Iranian destroyer in international waters, far, far from the theater of war, all the way off the… pic.twitter.com/ClrOybxlgv
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 5, 2026
By “thousands of miles away,” Burnett meant the Indian Ocean, “The United States today putting out a video of a torpedo exploding an Iranian destroyer in international waters, far, far from the theater of war, all the way off the coast of Sri Lanka, thousands of miles from where this war is being fought.”
Considering international waters begin once you get more than 12 nautical miles away from the coast, the fact that the sinking occurred in international waters is freaking out over. Furthermore, a warship, by definition, is a military target.
Nevertheless, Burnett continued, “We'll show you the images. They put them out. Pentagon video. They put it out of the attack. And then you see the sudden, massive explosion. It's the first time an attack submarine has used a torpedo to sink a combat ship since World War II. Now, Sri Lanka's navy then was involved with trying to rescue. They said they've rescued more than two dozen people from the ship but that would mean that maybe up to 150 or more are dead. We don't know the complete toll.”
Just to clarify: it is the first American submarine to sink an enemy vessel since World War II. In 1971, the Pakistani sub Hangor sank the Indian frigate Khukri, and, in 1982, the British HMS Conqueror sank the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano, which has its own left-wing scandal mongers. Those occurred during wartime. One that did not occur during wartime was in 2010, when a North Korean midget submarine sank the South Korean corvette Cheonan.
As it was, Burnett then shifted to other developments, “Also today, NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile that was going over Turkey. Turkey, of course, is NATO. It was traveling towards Turkey's airspace. We can see the debris from the missile there. And this is what we understand. We believe to be the first time that NATO forces have intercepted an Iranian missile traveling towards a member country's airspace in this war since this conflict began. And again, that was approaching over Turkish airspace.”
In this segment, Burnett was talking about Turkey, but later in the show Burnett added Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia to the list. She could have included Cyprus and civilians in Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait, and, since her show aired, Azerbaijan has been added to the list of neutrals bombed by Iran. That is a wholly different set of actions than sinking a warship where “war” is literally in the word.
Here is a transcript for the March 4 show:
CNN Erin Burnett OutFront
3/4/2026
7:01 PM ET
ERIN BURNETT: This as the war is escalating tonight, as I speak, 10 countries across northern Europe, northern Europe, you heard me right, are preparing a plan right now to evacuate civilians across borders amid this war with Iran that is now spreading thousands of miles from where it began, in Khamenei's compound in the center of Tehran Saturday morning.
The United States today putting out a video of a torpedo exploding an Iranian destroyer in international waters, far, far from the theater of war, all the way off the coast of Sri Lanka, thousands of miles from where this war is being fought.
We'll show you the images. They put them out. Pentagon video. They put it out of the attack. And then you see the sudden, massive explosion. It's the first time an attack submarine has used a torpedo to sink a combat ship since World War II.
Now, Sri Lanka's navy then was involved with trying to rescue. They said they've rescued more than two dozen people from the ship but that would mean that maybe up to 150 or more are dead. We don't know the complete toll.
Also today, NATO air defense systems shot down an Iranian missile that was going over Turkey. Turkey, of course, is NATO. It was traveling towards Turkey's airspace. We can see the debris from the missile there. And this is what we understand. We believe to be the first time that NATO forces have intercepted an Iranian missile traveling towards a member country's airspace in this war since this conflict began. And again, that was approaching over Turkish airspace.
