Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is dead. He was killed Saturday morning when U.S. and Israeli strikes reduced his compound in Tehran to rubble. In the hours after his death, the world reacted in different ways. For many Iranians, both in their country and the diaspora, it was a day of celebration. This man, a symbol of oppression for millions—and a leader with the blood of tens of thousands of his own people on his hands—was gone.
But some Western media outlets saw it differently. In obituaries written about Khamenei, excuses were made, his legacy was whitewashed, and nuance was introduced where none was necessary.
