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The Free Press’s El-Sayed Derangement Syndrome Comes Back to Bite It

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Cite

Baragona, J. (2026, November 13). The Free Press’s El-Sayed Derangement Syndrome Comes Back to Bite It. Zeteo. https://zeteo.com/p/the-free-presss-el-sayed-derangement

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Zeteo · collected 2026-11-13 · by Justin Baragona commentary

Quick Summary

Justin Baragona discusses how Bari Weiss’s right-wing website, The Free Press, experienced embarrassing errors after progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won a Senate race in Michigan. The article mentions that a staff writer used AI to alter a photo and another reporter lied about El-Sayed’s victory speech. These incidents occurred shortly after The Free Press’s parent company, Skydance, acquired the site for $150 million last year.
Written by AI on 2026-11-13, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Why this leaning score
The article's own words the score was based on. Each is quoted verbatim and was checked against the article text before being stored, so you can find it in the original.
Reading Leans strongly left (beta estimate) Confidence high 1 quote(s) discarded as not found in the article
Leaning: leans strongly left for article 149810 (high confidence, 2 verified quotes) · logged 2026-11-13

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans strongly left and hedges 40% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Washington Examiner
Leans strongly right further right than this Hedges 0 of 4 claims Outlet record 68/100
“The articles discuss different topics and contexts unrelated to the same specific event: Article A focuses on anti-Israel rhetoric in U.S. politics, while Article B discusses controversies and errors at The Free Press concerning Abdul El-Sayed.”
Blaze Media
Hedges 3 of 23 claims Outlet record 94/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of Abdul El-Sayed's political activities and the reactions to his election, but they do not describe the same specific event or incident.”

Story

The Free Press’s El-Sayed Derangement Syndrome Comes Back
Other · 1 article(s) covering the same event.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
5
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
40%
2 of 5 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans strongly left
expected in commentary, which argues a position · beta estimate
Publisher signals
not measured
these signals count newsroom corrections; Commentary has none to count
Outlets on this story
1
Other
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-13 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Zeteo · 261 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Justin Baragona
8 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
Plus, a CBS News story on El-Sayed sparks an internal fight, and a pro-Trump channel’s dwindling audience may have been the canary in the coal mine for the death of MAGA.
In tonight’s edition, we look into the mainstream media blackout over an on-the-record rape allegation against Donald Trump – a blackout that would almost certainly not exist for any other president in history (especially a Democratic one).
Why Mamdani’s Media Strategy Is Working – and the Mainstream Press Doesn’t Get It It may have been nothing more than a half-assed throwaway joke, but it’s definitely rubbed New Yorkers the wrong way – as well as Zohran Mamdani’s team.
Trump then expressed hope that Carr “will take this Threat to our Country very seriously,” following that up with another Truth Social post demanding sanctions against media outlets for reporting on polls that show his low approval rating.
2026-09-08 · assertive framing · Meet Trump’s Censor-in-Chief
Also by Justin Baragona
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 8 articles by Justin Baragona →

Topics

America CBS News MAGA Muslim The Free Press

Subjects

Abdul El-Sayed PERSON · 2× Bari Weiss’s PERSON · 2× The Free Press ORG · 2× America GPE · 1× Bari PERSON · 1× CBS News ORG · 1× El-Sayed PERSON · 1× Justin Baragona PERSON · 1× MAGA ORG · 1× Muslim NORP · 1×

Narrative

In the immediate aftermath of progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed winning the Michigan Senate race, the anti-woke blog – which David Ellison’s Skydance bought for $150 million last year – saw one of its staff writers use generative AI to surreptitiously alter a photo while another reporter outright lied about El-Sayed’s victory speech.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-13
Plus, a CBS News story on El-Sayed sparks an internal fight, and a pro-Trump channel’s dwindling audience may have been the canary in the coal mine for the death of MAGA.

Claims (5 extracted, 2 hedged)

In today’s edition, we dive into how Bari Weiss’s obsession with Abdul El-Sayed ultimately led to embarrassing foul-ups at The Free Press that even the anti-woke blog had to admit went too far. asserted
blog → dive → that
Plus, a CBS News story on El-Sayed sparks an internal fight, and a pro-Trump channel’s dwindling audience may have been the canary in the coal mine for the death of MAGA. uncertain
audience → spark → MAGA
Too Awful For Even Bari’s Backers It would appear that the election of America’s first Muslim senator may have further broken the brains over at Bari Weiss’s right-wing, pro-Israel website The Free Press. uncertain
election → appear → website
In the immediate aftermath of progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed winning the Michigan Senate race, the anti-woke blog – which David Ellison’s Skydance bought for $150 million last year – saw one of its staff writers use generative AI to surreptitiously alter a photo while another reporter outright lied about El-Sayed’s victory speech. asserted
reporter → win → speech
These embarrassing misfires also came at the worst time for Weiss. asserted
misfires → come → Weiss
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