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A CBS News headline accompanying a story about Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has generated significant online scrutiny, and the Paramount Skydance news outlet, once known for its reserve, appears
to feel the facts presented in the work outweigh the digital opprobrium.
On Monday morning, the CBS News feed on X posted a story with the accompanying headline: “As the nation prepares to mark 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001,” the post said, “Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, may be facing the risk of renewed scrutiny and fresh political attack.”
The story described the candidate as someone who “opposed American wars and capitalized on anger over anti-Arab sentiment in a state with a robust and active Muslim community.” As evidence, the story cited two deleted posts that had originally surfaced in 2020 and compared the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic with the death toll from terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
The post drew rebukes from a host of digital personalities and critics, including Cenk Uygur, host of “The Young Turks” and Tim Miller of The Bulwark.
“Ma’am, hate to bother you, but I just wanted to let you know, your mask slipped off,” Uygur posted. Miller called the CBS News post “despicable anti-Muslim woke right garbage.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment.
A person familiar with the story says CBS News saw nothing wrong in reporting on a politician’s deleted tweets. This person also says CBS News interviewed El-Sayed later in the day Monday and added his response to the matter. The story also included comments from a Michigan State political scientist about whether the tweets might affect the race in Michigan .
The digital outrage bubbles as media critics and even journalists within CBS News scrutinize the decisions of Bari Weiss, installed by Paramount as editor in chief of CBS News in 2025, for bias or the insertion of opinion into the CBS News daily report. Weiss, founder of the online opinion site The Free Press, is known for railing against so-called “woke” extremes and for unwavering support of Israel. In the recent past, CBS News has been watched for the way it covers New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The media newsletter Status on Monday night reported that Weiss praised the story during the network’s daily editorial meeting Monday, and directed that the headline mention El-Sayed had deleted tweets referencing the September 11 terrorist attacks.
But the person familiar with the article indicated Weiss sought a mention of the politician’s deleted tweets in the headline, since their discovery was a central part of the story. This person says CBS News deems El-Sayed’s past comments on 9/11 newsworthy, along with his association with the provocateur Hasan Piker, and how they might affect voters’ perception of his candidacy.
