The New York Times sparked immediate backlash on Saturday with its obituary-style headline for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the long-reigning Supreme Leader of Iran, who was eliminated in U.S.-Israeli military strikes.
They went full "austere religious scholar."
"Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hard-Line Cleric Who Made Iran a Regional Power, Is Dead at 86," the newspaper reports.
You can feel the subtle praise—praise!—dripping from your computer screen as you read that out loud, can't you?
The New York Times did not disappoint. pic.twitter.com/1QuHFhniO0
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 1, 2026
READ MORE: The Malignant Tumor Is Gone: America and Israel Just Gave Iran Back to the Iranian People
BREAKING: Iran's State-Controlled Media's Chilling Announcement of the Death of Ayatollah Khameini
Now, to be sure, the Gray Lady's sub-header does take a better peek into who this vile creature was, but there's a reason it's called a sub-header. Not everyone sees that in social media posts or search engine rankings. Not everybody reads it.
"As Iran’s second supreme leader, he brutally crushed dissent at home and expanded Iran’s footprint abroad, challenging Saudi Arabia for regional dominance," they added.
You have to go all the way back, what, days, weeks, for an example of brutally crushing dissent.
Critics, including prominent voices on social media, blasted the framing as yet another example of legacy media soft-pedaling a brutal theocrat responsible for decades of terrorism, repression of his own people, and anti-American aggression.
You simply can NOT hate the media enough. When we speak of being the "enemy of the people," this is exactly the kind of nonsense we're talking about.
Most lampooned the Times and compared it to the Washington Post's handling of the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, whom they famously described as an "austere religious scholar."
The New York Times never fails to disappoint.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 1, 2026
Old and busted: Austere Religious Scholar
New hotness: Hard-Line Cleric pic.twitter.com/imV9PJRwrj
The Washington Post, however, may have outdone even the Times in its handling of the announcement of the Death of Ayatollah Khameini. They eulogized him by describing his "bushy white beard and easy smile."
No, I'm not kidding.
Read how the WaPo is describing the Ayatollah Khamenei tonight:
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) March 1, 2026
“With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be fond of Persian poetry and…
Fond of Persian poetry, and with a beard you could just scratch as if you were sitting on Santa's lap.
Guys and gals in the media, it would have been super-easy and completely logical to add various descriptors such as: hardline sadist, terrorist sympathizer, and murderer when describing Khamenei.
That would have been a good start.
Contrast what the New York Times did for Khamenei to their headline announcing the death of "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams. Adams was denigrated with a description that noted his popular comic strip "was a sensation until he made racist comments."
The New York Times gave the Ayatollah of Iran a nicer obituary headline than they did Scott Adams. pic.twitter.com/a4XJeZW3gn
— Christian Heiens 🏛 (@ChristianHeiens) March 1, 2026
Which one of these is worse here, folks? The guy who made comments you didn't like, or the man behind numerous mass executions of his own people, and viewed the United States as the "Great Satan" and consistently endorsed the slogan "Death to America."
It doesn't take a scholar—austere or otherwise—to figure that out.
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