This past week in Iran showcased the funeral procession for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The regime permitted several hundred journalists to come and cover the event. They were promptly used as regime pawns, ensuring the Western world’s trusted news organizations pumped out their propaganda.

News consumers deserve honesty from media organizations, including, or maybe especially, when they cover regimes like the Islamic Republic. The lack of transparency was noteworthy, as the press coverage did not match Iranian social-media accounts of how few came to mourn Khamenei from July 5 to July 9.

Iran expert Beni Sabti at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) told CAMERA that the funeral procession was an opportunity for the new regime, under Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, to project strength.

Mojtaba Khamenei has so far only appeared in the form of a cardboard ayatollah due to reports of him sustaining injuries from the same attack that killed his father. Despite this, or perhaps because he has not been seen since Feb. 28, Iran desperately wants to exhibit fortitude following its claimed defeat of the United States and Israel. The appearance of unprecedented numbers of funeral-goers would convey national unity, a regime talking point, according to Sabti. It is a key component of the regime’s strategy.

The Western media obliged.

The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian all relied on propagandized images or numbers in their reporting. The AP reported that images aired on Iranian state television showed a massive crowd “that appeared to be larger than the one for … Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which drew over 1 million people,” though it qualified that authorities provided no “immediate crowd count.” The Journal reported that “Iranian authorities sa[id] 11 million people took public transport to attend the memorial that began Saturday to honor Khamenei … .”

The Guardian was less polite, placing quotation marks around “millions,” reporting the “scale and depth of the march” was “engineered,” and later revealing the number of mourners was a state media estimate.

Only 21% of the Iranian population trusts the regime’s broadcaster. Repeating propaganda, with little to no identification of it as such, means Western audiences are being fed information that most Iranians disbelieve.

Both CNN and the BBC acknowledged that they were operating in Iran only with governmental permission. CNN claimed to “[maintain] full editorial control of its reports,” while the BBC said its journalist, Lyse Doucet, was “reporting from Tehran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC’s Persian Service.” Neither qualifier made their reports trustworthy.

CNN’s coverage was confusing. A blurb described “thousands” that flocked to Tehran for funeral processions, but the  video’s voiceover said there were “millions of Iranians.”

Frederik Pleitgen, who previously allowed for the unchecked spread of Iranian propaganda, reported from a crowd that could have easily numbered 1,000 or 1 million people.

The BBC’s Doucet reported amid a sparser crowd than Pleitgen’s. While she described the public mourning as carefully choreographed and a “major political spectacle the men now in charge wanted the world to see,” she still contributed to unsubstantiated numbers, documenting “millions of mourners.” Doucet was previously criticized for her positive coverage of an Islamic Revolution anniversary celebration in February, shortly after thousands were massacred by the regime.

Should readers believe CNN and the BBC can count millions? Neither gave a source for their numbers. Perhaps they were from fixers.

The New York Times, on July 6, likewise reported “millions of people” mourned Khamenei in Tehran. (Two days later, though, it reported “hundreds of thousands.”)

The reporters did not reveal a source for the numbers; yet mid-article, the paper acknowledged that it “was granted access to the funeral ceremonies by Iran’s government, which determined the events the reporters, accompanied by a government-provided translator and a guide, could attend.” It also qualified the views expressed by people interviewed as potentially not “representative of many Iranians.”

One Times reporter, Abdi Latif Dahir, whose fixer controlled which ceremonies he attended, was reportedly overwhelmed with kindness. People gave him water, cool drinks and a dinner so delicious that he wished he could take it home. While acknowledging a fixer “shapes what you see and who you speak to,” he reported—exactly as the regime would have hoped—that nationalist sentiment appeared strengthened.

Sabti explained the regime accomplishes its goals through “lies, manipulation and propaganda,” and he implored that “this should be emphasized and discussed.”

Yet it was either under-discussed or ignored completely by the mainstream media. He revealed that the procession organizers changed the funeral routes in both Tehran and Qom to suit their photo and video preferences. Rather than use long, wide streets, they selected narrow ones to make the crowds look larger than they really were.

Sabti also pointed to Iranian social-media accounts that contradicted the regime and Western media reports, including regime supporters lamenting how the sparse attendance meant that Khamenei had been abandoned and explaining why areas weren’t crowded.

There was also little coverage of the regime’s efforts to encourage high attendance, including reports of pressuring civil servants, soldiers, students and workers to participate. Very few news organizations mentioned how attendees were enticed by offers of transport, food and lodging.

Why would the regime need to lie about numbers or entice and pressure people to come? Perhaps, as Sabti explains, it is because a secret government poll conducted in October 2025 revealed that 92% of Iranians are dissatisfied with the regime.

While no one, except maybe the government, knows how many mourners attended Khamenei’s funeral procession, the media coverage reveals one stark truth: Many Western journalists are not reporting reality. Transparency requires more than the acknowledgment of a fixer. News consumers should demand that their providers refuse to spread unverified claims.

Blasting the Iranian regime’s propaganda not only misleads those who rely on long-standing news organizations to report accurately, but it hurts the Iranian people, who deserve for the truth to be told.