BREAKING: Americans Killed As CBS Chief Runs Cover For New War

American Servicemembers Killed As Bari Weiss Shows Her True Colors

America Is at War. Here’s What You Need to Know.

This is not a drill. The United States is now engaged in a full shooting war in the Middle East, and the first American bodies are coming home. Missiles are flying across a dozen countries, a Supreme Leader is dead, and the man who started all of it spent Saturday night shaking hands with millionaires in a gilded room in Florida.

Welcome to the Raw America Sunday briefing — Raw Story and Really American’s people-powered answer to the MAGA and billionaire takeover of the press. We cover the stories the new ownership class would rather you didn’t see, without a corporation pulling our strings or a tech billionaire whispering in our ear. As billionaires snap up network after network and America lurches into a new war, the need for truly independent journalism has never been more urgent — this may be the most consequential moment for independent media in our lifetimes. If you believe that kind of journalism matters, please become a sustaining member of Raw America today. Your support is what keeps the lights on — and right now, those lights need to stay on.

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FIRST CASUALTY REPORT: THREE DEAD, FIVE WOUNDED

Three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five others seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military offensive against Iran. CENTCOM confirmed the casualties Sunday morning, calling them the first Americans to fall in a war that began less than 48 hours ago. Several additional troops sustained shrapnel wounds and concussions and are being returned to duty. The Pentagon is withholding names until families are notified.

In the joint operation, Israel has concentrated on targeting Iranian leaders, while the U.S. has focused on Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs. Among those killed in the opening strikes was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader of 35 years.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed Sunday to have struck the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf. CENTCOM has not confirmed that claim. American families are waking up this morning without a phone call they were expecting. Their sons and daughters went to work in the Middle East and did not come back. The president who sent them there was dancing to “YMCA” the night before he pulled the trigger.

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THE PARTY NEVER STOPPED

Trump hosted a Republican fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago that reportedly cost $1 million per person to attend, even as Iranian missiles arced across the skies of at least ten countries. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed to reporters that afternoon that the president planned to attend. “President Trump still intends to stop by the fundraiser being held at Mar-a-Lago this evening for the Republican Party, which is more important than ever,” she said. More important than ever. While the war he started was in its opening hours.

Florida vape magnate Shlomi Evgi — who received a written warning from the FDA in 2024 over tobacco law violations — posted Instagram photos of himself posing with Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s top diplomatic talent. In another clip, Trump worked the room in a golden tie, shaking hands, playing the host. In the hours before the war, Trump had been dancing at a charity gala while the military staged joint strikes with Israel. He slipped behind a curtain into a temporary situation room to watch the bombs fall, then emerged to post a wild video announcing the war to the world. He had already told the country what was coming, admitting in an early morning Truth Social post that American heroes “may be lost” and that “casualties often happen in war.” He was wearing a white USA trucker hat when he said it.

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TRUMP’S THREATS AND IRAN’S ANSWER

Just after midnight Sunday, Trump returned to his phone. “Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before,” he posted to Truth Social. “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”

Tehran was not impressed. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran’s parliament, declared that the U.S. and Israel had “crossed our red line” and would pay for it. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed to launch the “most ferocious offensive operation in the history of the Islamic Republic” against Israel and American bases in the region. Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned every country hosting U.S. military installations that use of those bases against Iran made them targets.

The toll is already spreading across the region. Eight people were killed and 28 wounded in a missile barrage in Israel’s Beit Shemesh region. The UAE reported three dead and 58 injured. One person was killed and 32 injured in Kuwait. As for how long this goes on, Trump offered the following to Axios in a five-minute phone interview from Mar-a-Lago: “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days.” The commander in chief, between handshakes, weighing his options.

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BARI WEISS AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF CONSENT

On Saturday, as war broke out and missiles flew, Bari Weiss — CBS News editor-in-chief and the most consequential figure in American journalism right now whether you’ve noticed or not — couldn’t resist hitting repost.

Weiss amplified a clip of journalist and activist Masih Alinejad pushing back on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s condemnation of the U.S.-Israeli strikes. Mamdani called what was happening “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression” and argued Americans wanted relief from the affordability crisis, not another regime-change war. Later, Weiss reposted a tearful, triumphant video of Alinejad celebrating Khamenei’s death in the streets.

This past June, just before U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Weiss appeared on Fox News echoing Trump’s framing — that nuclear Iran was an existential threat to America. She dismissed ceasefire talk and described B-2 bombers dropping MOPs on Iran as the “beauty of this situation.” A University of Maryland poll conducted earlier this month found just 21 percent of Americans supported a U.S. attack on Iran, with 49 percent opposed.

Now here is where the picture gets considerably larger and darker.

Weiss was installed as CBS News editor-in-chief by Paramount CEO David Ellison, who bought her outlet The Free Press for $150 million. Some reports alleged she was given that position to appease Trump. Her tenure has been beset by controversy. She postponed a “60 Minutes” segment — a decision correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi called a “political” move — and Anderson Cooper announced he was leaving the program.

CNN may be next. Netflix walked away from its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery on February 26, clearing the path for Paramount Skydance — led by David Ellison — to take over Warner Bros., including CNN. Once the deal closes, CNN is widely expected to come under Weiss’s control. CNN staffers described the mood inside as “shaken” and “depressing,” with journalists saying they expected colleagues to head for the exits. “No one wants to work for the Ellisons,” one on-air journalist said. “And if Bari is going to be running CNN, expect people to leave.”

The new combined company would carry substantial debt and have Saudi and Emirati backing — the same Gulf states now absorbing Iranian missile strikes, in the same region where American service members died yesterday. David Ellison previously told Trump administration officials he’d make sweeping changes to CNN if he acquired it. He attended Trump’s State of the Union last Tuesday as the guest of Senator Lindsey Graham.

This is how it works. You don’t need state censorship when billionaires buy the networks, install the editors, and reshape the coverage. CBS. CNN. The Washington Post. Each sale described in the language of modernization. Each sale moving the Overton window a few inches closer to whatever the man in the golden tie needs it to be. A new war has just begun, and the people who are supposed to cover it honestly are, one by one, landing in the hands of those who benefit from it going unchallenged.

That is precisely why Raw America exists — and why yesterday we brought you Thom Hartmann’s exclusive interview with retired Major General Paul Eaton, one of the most respected voices in American military leadership, speaking directly to our audience about what this war means and where it leads. That is the journalism we are committed to: bringing the experts, the generals, the truth-tellers directly to you, without a billionaire filtering the message.

We are at a hinge point. The consolidation of media and the launch of a new war are not separate stories. They are the same story. And independent outlets like Raw America may be the last places where that story gets told fully and without fear. This is the most demanding moment for independent media in a generation. Please subscribe to Raw America right now. Your support makes the difference between this journalism existing and not existing — and right now, it needs to exist.

Stay Strong. Stay Vigilant. We’re in this together.

—The Raw America Team

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