***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
In a Sunday report about how MSNBC failed in their duty to report facts to their viewers in the midst of Iran’s missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq last week, Fox News Channel media reporter and host of MediaBuzz, Howard Kurtz unloaded on the liberal cable news outlet for pushing Iran’s state-media propaganda and scaring the families of service members.
After returning from a commercial break, Kurtz called out Tehran bureau chief Ali Arouzi because he “saw fit to report what turned out to be completely bogus Iranian propaganda.” Arouzi parroted reports from Iran’s state-controlled media that falsely claimed 30 U.S. service members were killed in the attack.
“Yes, Arouzi offered the caveat that he wasn't sure about, but then why report it at all,” Kurtz chided. “And Chris Matthews said nothing, offered no qualifiers. Imagine if you had a loved one in the military serving on one of those bases and heard this fabricated report designed by the Iranians to scare the American public? And MSNBC repeated this several times.”
Kurtz played another soundbite of Arouzi, in addition to lying about 30 dead troops, asserting without evidence that the entirety of Al Asad Airbase was “leveled.”