CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss reportedly shaped El-Sayed 9/11 report, sparking backlash

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has become the center of a social media firestorm after reports that she personally shaped a story about Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed's deleted posts on the September 11 attacks. The network published the report Monday, drawing immediate backlash from left-wing commentators who accused Weiss of bias and Islamophobia.

According to Status News, Weiss praised the story during CBS's daily editorial meeting and directed that the headline be changed to specifically mention that El-Sayed had deleted tweets referencing the 9/11 attacks. The published headline read: «Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed's deleted tweets on Sept. 11 attacks invite scrutiny of past remarks.» The original headline, before Weiss's intervention, was «For Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, Sept. 11 commemoration invites scrutiny of past remarks.»

The CBS report highlighted El-Sayed's deleted social media posts, including a 2020 post comparing the nearly 3,000 Americans killed on 9/11 to the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic. Another post from September 11, 2021, 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 also noted that El-Sayed's posts come as the nation prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and that the deleted posts could expose him to renewed political attacks. El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, was confronted by a local CBS reporter on the campaign trail about the posts. He responded: «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?»

The backlash on the left was swift and fierce. MeidasTouch, a liberal outlet, called it «a major scandal for CBS.» Zeteo founder and former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan wrote: «It should be a scandal that a major American news network is now led by an overt, hands-on, undisguised Islamophobe but... it isn't. Islamophobia has been normalized in our media, and in our country. Shamefully.» Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine said it was «not a good look whatsoever,» and former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin declared on Bluesky: «Democrats: CBS must not be invited/allowed to host any debate in which Dem candidate appears.»

Conservatives, however, saw the reaction as overblown. National Review senior editor Charles C.W. Cooke quipped: «So she's the editor-in-chief?» The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway added: «How dare she improve the objective journalism of the entity she is responsible for.» Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross joked: «An editor does editing. News at 11.» GOP strategist Matt Whitlock said: «Fascinated by the Bari Derangement Syndrome. The Democrat candidate in the top Senate race in the country has been deleting tweets about how he feels about 9/11... After campaigning with a surrogate who said America deserved 9/11. Seems pretty newsworthy!»

CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A CBS News source familiar with the story previously told Fox News Digital that reports about deleted social media posts from politicians are published «all the time.»

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Delaney Sawyer

Society Reporter

Delaney Sawyer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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