CBS News’ Bari Weiss Faces Backlash Over Controversial Abdul El-Sayed 9/11 Headline

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is facing growing criticism over the network’s coverage of Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, after a controversial headline connected the candidate’s deleted social media posts to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The dispute centers on a CBS News article published Monday with the headline, “Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s deleted tweets on Sept. 11 attacks invite scrutiny of past remarks.” The report examined posts El-Sayed wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic in which he compared the number of Americans dying from the virus with the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 attacks.

According to Status, Weiss personally shaped how the story was framed and directed that the headline specifically reference El-Sayed’s deleted tweets about September 11. The outlet also reported that Weiss praised the article during CBS News’ daily editorial meeting.

The CBS report highlighted several posts El-Sayed made during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. In one post, he compared the growing COVID-19 death toll with the number of people killed on September 11 and argued that the country should respond to the public health crisis with a level of urgency similar to its response to the terrorist attacks.

El-Sayed also called for a long-term “war” against public health problems and poverty, contrasting that effort with the U.S. response to terrorism following 9/11.

Critics contend that the CBS coverage presented those comments in a misleading way and implied that El-Sayed had expressed sympathy for or support of the September 11 attacks. Several media critics and CBS staffers questioned why the old posts were being highlighted ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

The backlash intensified because El-Sayed is a Muslim Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. Critics accused CBS of using the 9/11 anniversary to place his name alongside the terrorist attacks without sufficient context.

The pushback reportedly extended inside CBS News itself.

Status reported that some current and former CBS employees objected to the story and raised concerns with the network’s standards department. One CBS News employee described the article as taking “a small nugget of news” and turning it into something much larger.

A former senior CBS News staffer who spoke to Status called the coverage “shameful” and accused the network of overt racism. Those characterizations reflect the views of individual sources and have not been established as an official finding about the story.

According to the reporting, the concerns did not result in significant changes because of Weiss’ reported support for the story.

The CBS report examined posts that El-Sayed later deleted along with his older social media history. His campaign has previously said that he removed posts from before 2023 so that old statements could not be taken out of context.

One of the posts compared the COVID-19 death toll with the lives lost on September 11. Another argued that the country should devote the same kind of national effort to fighting public health problems and poverty that it had devoted to the War on Terror.

Media Matters noted that comparisons between COVID-19 deaths and the September 11 attacks were not unusual during the pandemic. Public figures, including then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former President Donald Trump, also used 9/11 or other historic disasters as comparisons when discussing the scale of the pandemic.

The dispute adds to broader questions surrounding Weiss’ leadership at CBS News.

Weiss took over as CBS News editor-in-chief amid major changes at the network and has faced criticism from journalists and media observers over her editorial decisions and the direction of the news division.

Her involvement in the El-Sayed story has now become another flashpoint, with critics questioning whether the headline and framing were appropriate for a national news organization.

Some argue that El-Sayed’s deleted posts are legitimate material for political scrutiny, particularly as he campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat. Others say the coverage lacked necessary context.

The debate is likely to continue as the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches and El-Sayed’s Senate campaign receives increasing national attention.

For CBS News, the controversy represents another test of Weiss’ editorial leadership and the network’s effort to balance political scrutiny with journ