How News Networks Covered the Military Action in Iran

The U.S and Israel launched joint coordinated strikes on Iran early Saturday morning, apparently in an effort to keep the country from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The strikes led to the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who led the country for nearly four decades. Iran retaliated with its own strikes, hitting U.S.military bases in the region, which killed four U.S. service members. The strikes also targeted other densely populated locations in various Middle Eastern countries.

The rapid escalation of events forced the various news outlets into breaking-news mode, which felt eerily similar in timing to when news of the Venezuelan military strikes broke in early January.  

Here’s a breakdown of how each network covered the initial attacks and how their coverage evolved throughout the weekend.

(All times Eastern.)

ABC News

ABC News had special reports on ABC and ABC News Live at 2:02 a.m., 2:40 a.m., and 3:09 a.m., anchored by Michelle Franzen. At 5:08 a.m., Whit Johnson joined as anchor.

David Muir aired a special edition of World News Tonight on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. On Sunday night, Muir anchored a primetime special at 9 p.m. titled, Shockwaves: The Attack on Iran.

CBS News

The network broke in with a special report at 2:28 a.m., anchored by Carissa Lawson. Anchor Tony Dokoupil anchored a special edition of CBS Evening News at 6:30 p.m. and a one-hour primetime special, War with Iran, on Saturday night at 10 p.m. 

CNN

CNN was the first network to report the military strikes in Iran, with Elex Michaelson anchoring at 1:31 a.m. The network’s rolling coverage has been handled by Dana Bash, Victor Blackwell, Wolf Blitzer, Pamela Brown, Kaitlan Collins, Jessica Dean, Abby Phillip, Jim Sciutto, Sara Sidner, Jake Tapper, Fredricka Whitfield, and Fareed Zakaria. Primetime anchor Erin Burnett has been anchoring live out of Tel Aviv since Sunday afternoon.  

Fox News

Weekend anchor Jon Scott reported on the strikes at 1:38 a.m. Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins joined the coverage, which featured Trey Yingst live from Tel Aviv. The network brought in its weekday anchors for its rolling coverage on Saturday and Sunday, including Bret Baier, Kayleigh McEnany, Bill Hemmer, Dana Perino, Harris Faulkner, Sandra Smith, John Roberts, and Martha MacCallum.

MS NOW

Richard Lui broke into overnight programming at 1:48 a.m. The co-hosts of The Weekend, Jonathan Capehart, Eugene Daniels, and Jackie Alemany, picked up breaking news coverage at 6 a.m. Rolling coverage over the course of the weekend included Rachel Maddow, Alex Witt, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Ali Velshi, ​​Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell, and Elise Jordan. 

NBC News

The network broke the news on NBC News Now at 1:44 a.m., with a special report airing at 1:50 a.m. on NBC, anchored by Jessica Layton. Peter Alexander followed around 5 a.m. and was later joined by his Saturday Today co-anchor, Laura Jarrett, at 6 a.m. Tom Llamas anchored special reports throughout the day on Saturday, and also anchored a special edition of NBC Nightly News on Saturday evening.

NewsNation

The network was live with wall-to-wall coverage starting at 6 a.m., led by anchor Hena Doba and Laura Ingle. Anna Kooiman, Keleigh Beeson, and Leland Vittert were also part of the network’s rolling coverage. 

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