4 minPolitics
CBS News faces backlash over report on El-Sayed's deleted 9/11 posts
CBS News drew criticism from liberal commentators and Democratic lawmakers over a report highlighting deleted social media posts by Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed that compared the 9/11 death toll to pandemic losses and questioned U.S. wars.
CBS News faced sharp criticism Monday from liberal commentators and Democratic lawmakers over a report examining deleted social media posts by Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The report, published as the nation prepares to mark the milestone, cited posts from 2020 that compared the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11 to the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a September 11, 2021 post reflecting on lives lost in the attacks and subsequent wars.
The 2021 post, first uncovered by The Washington Free Beacon, read: «Today, I mourn the 3K lives, 6K injuries, & infrastructural devastation in NYC, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my faith. Tomorrow, I'll mourn ~1M lives, millions of injuries, & infrastructural devastation in 3 countries, perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country.» The report suggested El-Sayed could face renewed scrutiny and political attacks because of the posts.
The coverage drew immediate backlash from prominent voices on the left. Far-left commentator Hasan Piker called the report an «insane headline,» while Zeteo founder and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asked CBS News whether it was «super offensive and disgusting and Islamophobic» to publish a story about a potential first Muslim Democratic senator that begins by referencing 9/11. Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark podcast, described the report as «despicable anti-Muslim woke right garbage,» and Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., called it an «insane, blatantly racist headline.»
Astead Herndon, Vox host and editorial director, said the episode reflected a broader credibility problem in institutional media. «We've burned through so much credibility in recent years. And our information ecosystem is worse for it,» he wrote on X. The criticism also targeted Bari Weiss, who was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News last fall by new Paramount owner David Ellison as part of the company's acquisition of her outlet, The Free Press.
A CBS News source familiar with the story defended the report, telling Fox News Digital that coverage of deleted social media posts from politicians is published «all the time.» The source noted that El-Sayed was confronted about the posts by a local CBS News reporter on the campaign trail. In response, El-Sayed said: «What happened on 9/11 is a disaster. It was a terrible attack on our country. And our responsibility is also to think about, how do we build an America where we are protecting our servicemen and women from being asked to fight in wars we have no business fighting in?»
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The controversy comes as El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director and progressive activist, campaigns for the Senate seat in Michigan, a race that has drawn national attention. His supporters argue the deleted posts reflect legitimate criticism of U.S. foreign policy, while critics say the comparisons are inappropriate given the scale of the 9/11 attacks.
