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But most important, Hegseth devoted much of his Friday briefing to chastising journalists for covering the war in Iran in ways the administration didn’t like — including whining about on-screen chyrons that used the same language and phrasing that the Defense Department had used in the preceding days.

A day later, a different controversial figure in the administration went considerably further. MS NOW reported:

President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman is threatening to revoke the licenses of news broadcasters over their coverage of the Iran war.

Brendan Carr, the head of the agency, warned broadcast news organizations on Saturday to ‘correct course,’ following the president’s rants over news coverage of his war with Iran, including stories about U.S. aircraft tankers sustaining damage in a strike.

In a social media message that neglected to refer to any specific media outlets or real-world examples, Carr wrote, “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”....

Soon after, during a brief Q-and-A with reporters on Air Force One, Trump went on to suggest that reporting on the war in Iran that he disapproved of deserves to be seen as “pretty criminal.”

Trump: "It's pretty criminal because our media companies who have no credibility whatsoever are putting out information that they know is false, and it's a very dangerous thing for the country. I think they could be in serious jeopardy."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-16T01:07:50.450Z

It came on the heels of the president also promoting an online graphic in which he claimed credit for “reshaping” American journalism.

First Amendment something something

— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) 2026-03-14T19:57:02.245Z

In an online statement, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, explained, “The FCC can issue threats all day long, but it is powerless to carry them out. Such threats violate the First Amendment and will go nowhere. Broadcasters should continue covering the news, fiercely and independently, without fear of government pressure.”....

But stepping back, there’s another element to this that’s worth keeping in mind as the third week of the war advances: When wars are going well, administrations tend not to find it necessary to whine incessantly about media coverage and threaten independent news organizations.

If Trump and his team were feeling confident and optimistic about the mission and its objectives, the president and his acolytes probably wouldn’t be engaged in the kind of hysterical press complaints we’re seeing now.