CNN’s London bureau chief and their chief global affairs correspondent got caught shaking hands with Iran’s ambassador at the Iranian Embassy in London last month — at a party celebrating the founding of the Islamic Republic. No cameras. No microphones. No notepads. No press credentials. Just two CNN bigwigs clinking glasses with a regime that was busy massacring its own citizens that same week.

Unbelievable. But hey, CNN says it was just “normal work.” You know, the kind of “normal work” where you leave all your journalism equipment at home and show up to a dictator’s birthday bash in a sport coat.

Here’s what happened. The U.K.’s Telegraph published photos on March 12 that had originally been shot by Iranian state media — Iran Press, the regime’s own propaganda outlet. In those photos, CNN London bureau chief Andrew Roy and chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance are grinning and shaking hands with Iran’s Ambassador to the U.K., Seyed Ali Mousavi. The party was held on February 12 to celebrate the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

February 12. Write that date down.

On that exact same day, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that at least 7,000 people had been killed by the Iranian regime — including 219 children. While CNN’s top London brass were toasting the mullahs, Iranian parents were burying their kids.

But sure. “Normal work.”

NewsBusters reporter Nicholas Fondacaro dug into it and found something that makes the whole thing even more ridiculous. Matthew Chance — CNN’s “chief global affairs correspondent” — never filed a single story about the event. Not a dispatch. Not a tweet. Not a two-sentence blog post. Go check his CNN profile page. Everything he filed in February was about Russia and Ukraine. He went to a party at the Iranian Embassy and came back with… nothing. No story. No interview. No footage.

If that’s journalism, then I’m an astronaut every time I look up at the moon.

When confronted, a CNN spokesperson gave Fondacaro the most corporate non-answer in the history of corporate non-answers: “Journalists attend different functions as part of normal work as an opportunity to speak with government officials whom they cover.”

They “cover.” That’s rich. What exactly has CNN been “covering” at the Iranian Embassy that requires annual visits with zero recording equipment? Sky News editor Dominic Waghorn — who was also caught at the party — let it slip that CNN goes to the embassy shindig “every year.” Every year! CNN has an annual date with the Iranian regime’s ambassador and nobody thought this was worth mentioning until Iranian state media posted the photos.

Think about the irony there for a second. The only reason we know CNN was at this party is because Iran’s propaganda arm was proud enough to publish the pictures. Iran was bragging about it. CNN was hiding it.

This all landed in the middle of what might be the worst week CNN has had since they got caught coaching debate questions to Hillary Clinton. The White House had already been hammering them for multiple false stories about Operation Epic Fury. Secretary Hegseth publicly said, “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.” Then CNN’s Fred Pleitgen basically admitted he had a regime “minder” following him around Tehran, deciding what he could and couldn’t see. And then the embassy photos dropped.

So naturally, Jake Tapper decided to fix everything with a lecture. On State of the Union, Tapper delivered one of those chin-up, eyes-glistening editorials about the sacred role of the free press. His big closer? “Every reporter that I know wants the United States to succeed in every way.”

Does that include the reporters who party with regimes that chant “Death to America” at Friday prayers, Jake? Asking for 330 million friends.

Here’s what nobody at CNN wants you thinking about. This isn’t just an embarrassing photo-op. This is a pattern — and it’s one that’s about to cost them real money.

CNN’s ad revenue has been in free fall since the election. Their primetime ratings are hovering around 400,000 viewers on a good night, which puts them behind reruns of Pawn Stars. David Ellison’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to close later this year, and everything CNN does between now and then is either making Ellison’s case for a total housecleaning or making it harder.

Photos of your bureau chief shaking hands with an Iranian ambassador — while American troops are deployed in the region — make it real easy for the new boss to say, “These people have to go.” Every CNN executive with a functioning brain stem knows this. The ones partying at the Iranian Embassy apparently don’t have functioning brain stems.

But the second-order effect is worse. Iran’s state media didn’t publish those photos by accident. They published them because having Western journalists at their celebrations is a propaganda tool. It legitimizes the regime. When Iran Press puts out a photo of CNN’s chief global affairs correspondent shaking the ambassador’s hand at a party celebrating the Islamic Revolution, that photo gets shown on Iranian state television. It gets circulated in regime-friendly media across the Middle East. The message is clear: “Even the American press respects us.”

CNN isn’t just failing at journalism. They’re succeeding at Iranian propaganda — for free.

The next time Jake Tapper gets misty-eyed about how every reporter he knows loves America, someone should ask him a simple question: If every reporter at CNN loves America so much, why does CNN keep showing up to parties thrown by people who want to destroy it?

We already know the answer. They just don’t want us saying it out loud.