The purpose of this research is to study the polarized discourse as encoded in the ideological structures of reports by the two Iranian and American news websites: CNN and Press TV. The researcher analyzes online news texts on the US sanctions against Iran from the randomly selected news during a specific period of time. The study of these news reports is implemented in the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. The ideological characteristics of the polarization are found in the quotation patterns and labeling. Therefore, this research draws an inference at how the two news websites represent a distinction between ‘us’ versus ‘them’ by emphasizing the in-groups and de-emphasizing the out-groups. Moreover, it is proved that the news texts of each website devalue statements by the ‘other’ who is not present and, in this regard, direct quotations are avoided.
