4 ms·

Has anyone felt like the news out of this war has been more tightly controlled than other recent conflicts by multiple orders of magnitude? Russia/Ukraine news

Has anyone felt like the news out of this war has been more tightly controlled than other recent conflicts by multiple orders of magnitude? Russia/Ukraine news is everywhere, Israel/Lebanon, etc, but this one is zipped up tightly. The platforms/news orgs must all be getting pretty serious orders on reporting, because even Gulf Wars I and II had more getting out.

sergiomattei 8mo ago
Zipped up tightly? This has been all over mainstream news outlets, social media, everywhere. We are commenting on a submission linked to the New York Times.
- jimbo808 8mo ago
  They can't really not talk about it, it's a world war unfolding. It's going to affect every person alive. But as much as it can be, it is absolutely being mitigated in traditional media.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- roywiggins 8mo ago
  Compared to, say, the coverage from Ukraine during February 2022, actual information getting out from the ground is sparser. Or the opening "shock and awe" campaign in Iraq in 2003, there were Western and international media in Baghdad reporting on it in real time, shooting video from their hotels: https://youtu.be/m8KimNtB9HI https://youtu.be/m8KimNtB9HI The reason why isn't really a mystery: Iran has never been exactly welcoming to Western media, and internet access there was intentionally shut off after the recent protests. There's plenty of coverage- it's front page everywhere- but a paucity of information. It's all over social media, but hardly any of that is from Iranians in Iran, it's just people outside it like you and me mostly just yapping. Occasionally you'll hear something second-hand from someone with family in Iran who managed some brief connectivity.
bbddg 8mo ago
Yes for sure. It’s not easy to find reporting about the extent of attacks on either side of this war.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
rmm78 8mo ago
[dead]
alephnerd 8mo ago
> Has anyone felt like the news out of this war has been more tightly controlled than other recent conflicts... Internet access in Iran has been spotty after the massacres in January. Also, even Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza-Lebanon news and "OSINT" is tightly controlled - the legal, logistical, and technical tools needed to limit access and control of information are well in the reach of any nation now, and even most police departments across much of the world.
hallh 8mo ago
Internet access in Iran is still tightly controlled, so there's probably much less organic content on social media, etc to report on.
numpad0 8mo ago
American/English social media in general are being gutted alive in the past few months.
- spwa4 8mo ago
  And inside Iran, the regime blocks the internet networks and shoots at people bypassing any kind of block ...
readitalready 8mo ago
[flagged]
- roywiggins 8mo ago
  No, it didn't take several days for reporting to show up in major media: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l7rvqq51eo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l7rvqq51eo
  - readitalready 8mo ago
    Yah that was never on their front pages or on their apps, probably hidden on an archival web page. I looked everywhere. Only found the story in a few places on Feb 28, the day it happened. This is how they hide stories.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
    - roywiggins 8mo ago
      It was on the BBC front page by March 2nd, two days after it happened, probably less than 48 hours. https://web.archive.org/web/20260302041747/https://www.bbc.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260302041747/https://www.bbc.c... The NYT had coverage the day of. https://archive.ph/CdT2X https://archive.ph/CdT2X You can see it on the front page in their "Live" coverage at the time: https://archive.ph/sYqKl https://archive.ph/sYqKl I do think it was probably relatively underplayed in Western press, you can eg see it on the front page day-of pretty prominently on Al Jazeera: https://web.archive.org/web/20260228182044/https://www.aljazeera.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260228182044/https://www.aljaz... But the western press dragging their feet at covering victims of America's foreign wars is not down to being pro-Israel, no.
roywiggins 8mo ago
Iran is not welcoming to Western reporters, so Western press aren't pointing their TV cameras out their hotel windows to show the explosions like in 2003. And locals can't report other than in tiny snatches of text as the internet has been turned off in the country for ages, and one imagines operating a satphone in Iran right now would be a risky endeavor.
- roywiggins 8mo ago
  (CNN now has a team reporting from Tehran: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/08/world/video/fred-pleitgen-shahran-oil-depot-iran-tehran-us-israel-strikes-intldsk https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/08/world/video/fred-pleitgen-sha... )
- compsciphd 8mo ago
  As a simple example, read up on Bourdain's fixers/friends from his famous no reservations episode who were arrested by Iran as spies soon after the episode was filmed.
fuzzfactor 8mo ago
>news out of this war has been more tightly controlled Well at least one person hates the free flow of information enough to plant their flag of choice on this very comment thread, if not many others.
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
polotics 8mo ago
Yes indeed. The most revealing was when a journalist asked Mr T about his opinion about Russia helping Iranian forces right now to target the Gulf's oil capacity, there was an amazing outburst against that journalist and his stupid question. Amazing.
gerash 8mo ago
Planet labs has also been banned from publishing damages to US bases and Israel. I suspect it all means it doesn’t look very good for the US

sergiomattei 8mo ago

Zipped up tightly? This has been all over mainstream news outlets, social media, everywhere. We are commenting on a submission linked to the New York Times.

jimbo808 8mo ago
They can't really not talk about it, it's a world war unfolding. It's going to affect every person alive. But as much as it can be, it is absolutely being mitigated in traditional media.
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
roywiggins 8mo ago
Compared to, say, the coverage from Ukraine during February 2022, actual information getting out from the ground is sparser. Or the opening "shock and awe" campaign in Iraq in 2003, there were Western and international media in Baghdad reporting on it in real time, shooting video from their hotels: https://youtu.be/m8KimNtB9HI https://youtu.be/m8KimNtB9HI The reason why isn't really a mystery: Iran has never been exactly welcoming to Western media, and internet access there was intentionally shut off after the recent protests. There's plenty of coverage- it's front page everywhere- but a paucity of information. It's all over social media, but hardly any of that is from Iranians in Iran, it's just people outside it like you and me mostly just yapping. Occasionally you'll hear something second-hand from someone with family in Iran who managed some brief connectivity.

bbddg 8mo ago

Yes for sure. It’s not easy to find reporting about the extent of attacks on either side of this war.

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

rmm78 8mo ago

[dead]

alephnerd 8mo ago

> Has anyone felt like the news out of this war has been more tightly controlled than other recent conflicts... Internet access in Iran has been spotty after the massacres in January. Also, even Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza-Lebanon news and "OSINT" is tightly controlled - the legal, logistical, and technical tools needed to limit access and control of information are well in the reach of any nation now, and even most police departments across much of the world.

hallh 8mo ago

Internet access in Iran is still tightly controlled, so there's probably much less organic content on social media, etc to report on.

numpad0 8mo ago

American/English social media in general are being gutted alive in the past few months.

spwa4 8mo ago
And inside Iran, the regime blocks the internet networks and shoots at people bypassing any kind of block ...

readitalready 8mo ago

[flagged]

roywiggins 8mo ago
No, it didn't take several days for reporting to show up in major media: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l7rvqq51eo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l7rvqq51eo
- readitalready 8mo ago
  Yah that was never on their front pages or on their apps, probably hidden on an archival web page. I looked everywhere. Only found the story in a few places on Feb 28, the day it happened. This is how they hide stories.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
  - roywiggins 8mo ago
    It was on the BBC front page by March 2nd, two days after it happened, probably less than 48 hours. https://web.archive.org/web/20260302041747/https://www.bbc.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260302041747/https://www.bbc.c... The NYT had coverage the day of. https://archive.ph/CdT2X https://archive.ph/CdT2X You can see it on the front page in their "Live" coverage at the time: https://archive.ph/sYqKl https://archive.ph/sYqKl I do think it was probably relatively underplayed in Western press, you can eg see it on the front page day-of pretty prominently on Al Jazeera: https://web.archive.org/web/20260228182044/https://www.aljazeera.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260228182044/https://www.aljaz... But the western press dragging their feet at covering victims of America's foreign wars is not down to being pro-Israel, no.

roywiggins 8mo ago

Iran is not welcoming to Western reporters, so Western press aren't pointing their TV cameras out their hotel windows to show the explosions like in 2003. And locals can't report other than in tiny snatches of text as the internet has been turned off in the country for ages, and one imagines operating a satphone in Iran right now would be a risky endeavor.

roywiggins 8mo ago
(CNN now has a team reporting from Tehran: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/08/world/video/fred-pleitgen-shahran-oil-depot-iran-tehran-us-israel-strikes-intldsk https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/08/world/video/fred-pleitgen-sha... )
compsciphd 8mo ago
As a simple example, read up on Bourdain's fixers/friends from his famous no reservations episode who were arrested by Iran as spies soon after the episode was filmed.

fuzzfactor 8mo ago

>news out of this war has been more tightly controlled Well at least one person hates the free flow of information enough to plant their flag of choice on this very comment thread, if not many others.

deleted 8mo ago

[deleted]

polotics 8mo ago

Yes indeed. The most revealing was when a journalist asked Mr T about his opinion about Russia helping Iranian forces right now to target the Gulf's oil capacity, there was an amazing outburst against that journalist and his stupid question. Amazing.

gerash 8mo ago

Planet labs has also been banned from publishing damages to US bases and Israel. I suspect it all means it doesn’t look very good for the US