After watching the American news media’s recent coverage of the escalating hostilities between Washington and Tehran, I see now why Iran’s tyrannical regime grants Western journalists so much access. It could hardly hope for a more sympathetic and pliable audience.

MSNBC, for example, broadcast Iranian propaganda Tuesday evening, claiming that up to 30 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Iranian-led rocket attacks on at least two Iraqi military bases housing American troops.