CBS News faced a barrage of criticism this week after publishing an article scrutinizing past social media posts by Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan. The report, overseen by CBS executive Bari Weiss and authored by Zak Hudak, detailed El-Sayed's deleted tweets about the September 11 attacks.
In one post, El-Sayed expressed hope that with COVID-19 deaths surpassing 9/11's toll, the country would "spend the next ten years fighting a war for public health and against poverty like we launched a global War on Terror after 9/11. We could save lives rather than take them."
On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, El-Sayed mourned those killed in attacks "perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my faith," then stated he would mourn the following day for deaths and destruction "perpetuated ignorantly in the name of my country."
Left-leaning outlets assailed the CBS article. Salon said CBS "attacked" the candidate. The Daily Beast's headline read: "MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Hit With Furious Staff Backlash." Defector accused CBS of "Oafish Racism On Behalf Of Bari Weiss." The New Republic criticized Weiss for personally leading the "twisted" article. The Hollywood Reporter noted that critics accused CBS of "falsely insinuating" El-Sayed had ties to the attacks.
El-Sayed's campaign responded: "Abdul has always unequivocally condemned terrorism and the September 11 attacks."
Syndicated columnist Ian Haworth pushed back against the backlash, arguing that reporting El-Sayed's comments is not "racist" and that if his remarks embarrass the campaign, that is El-Sayed's problem, not the network's.
