New York Times’ Obit Headline for Ayatollah Khamenei Is Out, and You Can’t Hate the Media Enough – RedState
The New York Times sparked an immediate backlash Saturday with its obituary headline about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s long-reigning supreme leader, who was eliminated in U.S.-Israeli military strikes.
They became “austere religious scholars.”
“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a radical cleric who made Iran a regional power, has died at 86,” the newspaper reports.
You can feel the subtle praise—to rent out!– dripping off your computer screen as you read this out loud, right?
The New York Times did not disappoint. pic.twitter.com/1QuHFhniO0
– Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 1, 2026
LEARN MORE: The malignant tumor is gone: America and Israel have just returned Iran to the Iranian people
BREAKING: Iran’s state-controlled media’s chilling announcement of Ayatollah Khameini’s death
Now, of course, the Gray Lady subheader gives more insight into who this vile creature was, but there’s a reason it’s called a subheader. Not everyone sees it in social media posts or search engine rankings. Not everyone 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, days, weeks, to see an example of brutally crushing dissent.
Critics, including prominent voices on social media, blasted the phrasing, calling it yet another example of how mainstream media has muted a brutal theocrat responsible for decades of terrorism, repression of his own people and anti-American aggression.
You can simply NOT I hate the media quite a bit. When we talk about being the “enemy of the people,” this is exactly the kind of nonsense we are talking about.
Most ridiculed the Times and compared it to the Washington Post’s coverage of the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, whom they described as an “austere religious scholar.”
The New York Times never disappoints.
Old and broken: a dour religious scholar
New trend: the hard-line cleric pic.twitter.com/imV9PJRwrj
-Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 1, 2026
The Washington Post, however, may have even surpassed the Times in It is treatment of the announcement of the death of Ayatollah Khameini. They praised him, describing his “bushy white beard and easy smile.”
No, I’m not kidding.
Read tonight how WaPo describes Ayatollah Khamenei:
“With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khamenei cut a more avuncular figure in public than his perpetually sullen but much more revered mentor, and he was known to be an enthusiast of Persian poetry and…
–Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) March 1, 2026
Passionate about Persian poetry, and with a beard, you can scratch yourself like you’re sitting on Santa’s lap.
In the media, it would have been very simple and completely logical to add various descriptors such as: outright sadist, terrorist sympathizer and murderer to describe Khamenei.
That would have been a good thing to start.
Compare what the New York Times did for Khamenei with its headline announcing the death of “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams. Adams was disparaged with a description that his popular comic strip “was a sensation until he made racist comments.”
The New York Times gave Iran’s Ayatollah a nicer obituary headline than Scott Adams’. pic.twitter.com/a4XJeZW3gn
– Christian Heiens 🏛 (@ChristianHeiens) March 1, 2026
Which of these is the worst here, folks? The man who made comments you didn’t like, or the man behind numerous mass executions of his own people, and who viewed the United States as the “Great Satan” and consistently supported the slogan “Death to America.”
You don’t have to be a scholar – austere or otherwise – to understand this.
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