PBS’ Reza Sayah reported on Iranian reactions to the death of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in a video posted to the website on Mar. 3, 2026.
Sayah reported that millions mourned Khamenei’s death and that while there were “pockets of celebrations throughout the country” and “many . . . that didn’t like the Supreme Leader, that despised him,” there were “millions who despised the United States and Israel more.”
Sayah’s reporting downplayed those who were happy about Khamenei’s demise, instead emphasizing those who mourned him or despised the U.S. and Israel. But this narrative crafting is contradicted by recent Iranian polls.
In a GAMAAN (The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran) poll conducted in 2024, but with results released in 2025, only 11% of Iranians supported “the principles of the Islamic revolution and the Supreme Leader,” which meant that 89% of Iranians did not favor the Supreme Leader. While Sayah acknowledged that Iran has a population of 90 million, and of course, 11% of 90 million is still many millions of people, Sayah’s coverage dramatically skewed the picture, effectively covering up for Khamenei’s extraordinarily low favorability rate.
More recent polling by GAMAAN in late September 2025, in a survey entitled “Iranians’ Attitudes Toward the 12-Day War [between Israel and Iran in June 2025],” indicated that “anger at the Islamic Republic” was the highest emotion experienced during the war by 42% of Iranians, while “anger at Israel” was only felt by 30%. Moreover, 63% of Iranians believed the war was between Israel and the Islamic Republic, not the Iranian people.
In measuring favorability of countries, the United States was viewed most positively (53%) and least negatively (37%) by Iranians, and Israel was ranked second most positively (39%) and 48% negatively. For comparison, Russia was viewed negatively by 68% and the UK was viewed negatively by 65% of Iranians.
While the current conflict is a different war – or arguably the second act of the same war, but this time with the Americans leading – the polling was conducted only five months ago. Based on the polling alone, it was simply inaccurate for Sayah to lead PBS viewers to believe that more people “despised” the U.S. and Israel than disfavored Khamenei.
Given that authoritarian regimes such as Iran’s carefully choreograph public mourning and suppress dissent, it becomes even more important for journalists to provide proper context and nuance to news consumers. By failing to do so, PBS misled its viewers regarding Iranian public opinion.