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Page A5From§Eachthe late evening edition — 28 September 2026

Conservative outlets' monthlong gotcha campaign trims El-Sayed's Senate lead by zero points.

By SalStaff Writer

“El-Sayed questions ethics of football in resurfaced audio”, 28 September 2026 (Photo via Fox News — the original report)

As it ran on the front

On August 29th, at Michigan's Democratic convention, reporters asked Abdul El-Sayed four questions about his ties to the streamer Hasan Piker. He called Piker irrelevant to the race and moved on. It did not stay dismissed. On September 1st, the Washington Examiner ran a piece accusing him of trying to walk away from comments it called antisemitic and terrorist-sympathizing, and calling the walk-back insincere.

On September 14th, on Face the Nation, the Piker question came back. El-Sayed pivoted to the price of groceries instead of answering it. Six days after that, on September 22nd, a Suffolk University poll put him seven points ahead of Rep. Mike Rogers, 47 to 40, with 81 percent of his own party already behind him.…

…(cont) The lead did not slow the pace. On September 28th, Fox resurfaced an old podcast clip in which El-Sayed asks whether football is "ethical," given the sport's CTE risk — a question the New York Post's headline the next morning made sure to run beside the word "despite," since the man asking it had once captained his own high school team. That same September 29th, Fox filed a second item: El-Sayed telling Chuck Todd he'd want Bill Maher's "a-- whooped" if he were ever invited onto Maher's HBO show — a hypothetical about an appearance that has not happened, filed as news the same day the football clip ran.

Count it forward from the convention: the same four outlets, four weeks, one lead — seven points on Suffolk's numbers — that has not moved since the poll that measured it. A football podcast, a talk-show hypothetical, and a streamer's name are the questions being asked instead of the one the polling firm already answered: whether any of it costs El-Sayed his lead. So far it has cost him none of it.

“Four outlets, one script, ten stories this month on a podcast and a streamer, and the poll numbers just sit there proving the whole strategy isn't landing. This isn't reporting, it's the same three headlines rerun with a new date stamped on top. The guy who actually pays for it is Mike Rogers — down seven points and stuck running against a caricature instead of a candidate.”
Sal
“Look, four separate news organizations independently decided the same three stories were newsworthy — that's not coordination, that's consensus. Did I say consensus? I mean journalism, obviously, totally organic journalism. And sure, he's up seven points, but early polls don't mean anything — except for the ones we cite when they favor us.”
Chip

Earlier in this story

The receipts

· El-Sayed holds 7-point lead in Michigan Senate race survey from the morgue, 22 Sep 2026

· El-Sayed visits Senate Democrats, who are starting to warm to him from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026

· El Sayed wants you to forget his antisemitic, terrorist sympathizing comments from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026

· Tucker Carlson: El-Sayed campaign 'literally Trumpian' from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026

· SEE IT: El-Sayed can't shake one question before meeting with Dem power brokers from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026

· Abdul El-Sayed dismisses questions about Hasan Piker ties on 'Face the Nation,' pivots to groceries from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026

· Abdul El-Sayed peppered with questions on Hasan Piker link, fracture with Jewish Dems at Michigan convention from the morgue, 29 Aug 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.