LONDON: CBS News Editor-In-Chief Bari Weiss reportedly played a direct role in shaping a controversial headline about Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, according to media newsletter Status.

The CBS article, published Monday, focused on deleted social media posts by El-Sayed referencing the Sept. 11 attacks. Status reported that Weiss personally asked for the headline to be changed to explicitly mention 9/11 and later praised the story’s author during an editorial meeting.

The piece drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers and commentators, who accused CBS of promoting Islamophobic or racist framing against El-Sayed, a Muslim and progressive Democratic candidate.

One of the deleted posts cited by CBS was from 2020, in which El-Sayed compared the US response to the COVID-19 death toll with the scale of the response to the 9/11 attacks, arguing for greater investment in public health and poverty reduction.

According to Status, some CBS staff also questioned the story’s framing and raised concerns about the network’s objectivity.

The Independent, which reported on the allegations, said it had contacted CBS and parent company Paramount for comment.

Weiss has previously faced criticism over her editorial interventions at CBS News. She has defended her approach by saying the network’s priority is to produce coverage that is “comprehensive and fair,” and focused on getting stories right.