On day one of the joint U.S.-Israel strike campaign against Iran, ABC News reported on an alleged strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Iran, resulting in a growing casualty count. In doing so, ABC uncritically parroted Tasnim News and Fars News, both known Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) propaganda outlets, as well as IRGC member-cum-propagandist-in-chief Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi (described by the Wall Street Journal as a purveyor of “falsehoods”).
In both a news update entitled “Iran says death toll in strike on elementary school rises to 85” and subsequent article “Iranian officials claim school hit during US-Israeli army strikes,” ABC News did not undertake any investigation or attempt at fact-finding – it merely repeated unverified claims from these sources and said that U.S. Central Command was investigating the incident.
Not even pro-Islamic Republic outlets could agree on the story. Al Jazeera claimed Israel struck the school whereas an Islamic Republic news agency claimed it was the Americans who struck the school. ABC News said it occurred “during U.S. and Israeli military strikes throughout the country.” On the flip side, more than one anti-regime outlet reported that an IRGC missile – not a strike by the U.S. or Israel – hit the school in Minab.
Another anti-regime outlet maintained that the elementary school was built for the IRGC, and IRGC children attend. Even if the strike did result from the U.S. or Israel and was not the result of a misfire, one independent journalist reported not only that the IDF denied involvement, but also that the school was within an IRGC compound, an allegation also suggested by The Guardian, which reported the school appeared to be next to IRGC barracks.
While a diligent probe of the murky facts may nevertheless not have succeeded in ascertaining the truth, ABC News failed to deliver on the basic obligation to acknowledge — much less investigate — alternate options contradicting the regime’s claims. Moreover, ABC failed its audience by neglecting to inform them that Tasnim News, Fars News and Foreign Minister Araghchi all disseminate IRGC propaganda. Extending an uncritical platform to known proliferators of state-sponsored disinformation while failing to note conflicting accounts is a fundamental journalistic failure reminiscent of the Al-Ahli Hospital incident. In that infamous October 2023 media fiasco, news outlets rushed to report Hamas’ claim that the IDF had bombed the Gaza hospital. In reality, a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad hit the parking lot of the hospital.
ABC News’ core standards include “journalistic integrity,” which ABC News defines in part as having a commitment to unbiased reporting, meticulous research and fact-checking. By its own definition, ABC News violated its standards in reporting on the alleged school strike.