UPDATE: After the Mamdani 9/11 smear, a cover-up

Media outlets pushed a false narrative about the number of family members of 9/11 victims who signed a petition targeting Mamdani — and then tried to cover their tracks.

As Popular Information first reported last week, a New York Post headline falsely declared on its July 26 cover: “Thousands of 9/11 families demand Mamdani be banned from 25th-Anniversary.” Reporter Rich Calder reported in the New York Post print edition, which has a circulation of about 120,000, that the petition “has collected 3,515 signatures in a little over a week, most from victims’ family members.”

This was false, according to the version of the story that was posted online. That article claimed that the petition “has collected over 1,100 signatures in a little over a week, including from at least 300 victims’ families.”

A Popular Information interview with petition organizer Giovanni Galante on July 27 revealed that the lower number was also unsubstantiated. Galante admitted that he did not maintain a list of victims’ families who signed the petition, and the 300 figure was simply an estimate of how he believed the petition spread. “We don’t have a list,” Galante said. “If you know 10 people and they give it to 10 more people they know that lost. That’s how we got the 300 number.” Galante added that he does not “go through the list” of people who signed the petition “and look at the names.” The interview was published by Popular Information on July 28.

In response to this reporting, the New York Post did not issue a correction. Instead, it quietly edited the article for a third time. On July 28 at 3:20 PM, according to the article’s metadata, the New York Post article was altered to say the petition “is circulating widely among 9/11 families and Galante estimated that between 3,000 and 7,500 of the signers are relatives of victims.”

Two things are notable. First, the New York Post is now distancing itself from the accounting, framing it instead as an estimate from Galante. Second, Galante dramatically increased his estimate from 300 to “3,000 to 7,500” less than 24 hours after his interview with Popular Information.

It is an apparent effort by the New York Post to surreptitiously justify the original July 26 cover and its baseless claims that “thousands” of 9/11 families signed the petition to exclude Mamdani from the 9/11 anniversary ceremony.

The New York Post did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the New York Post has continued to promote the anti-Mamdani petition. Since its initial piece it has published seven more articles about the petition in print and online.

The most consequential piece, which involved the efforts of at least ten New York Post reporters, is headlined, “More 9/11 families urge defiant Mamdani to stay home for 25th memorial ceremony: Here are their stories.” The piece is framed as a response to “Mamdani apologists” who “have criticized the petition’s creators and alleged The Post overestimated the number of victims’ families who don’t want Hizzoner at the solemn remembrance.”

The piece identifies a total of ten individuals who lost a family member on 9/11 who signed the petition. The views of these individuals should not be discounted, but ten is a lot less than 3,000, the minimum number of victims’ family members that the New York Post currently claims signed the petition. According to the story, the New York Post connected with “dozens of relatives” who “said they support the petition but declined to go on the record.”

Meanwhile, a group of 250 family members of 9/11 victims known as September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows issued a statement supporting Mandani’s attendance. This group was dismissed by the New York Post as a “far-left group… trying to silence 9/11 families.”

“Mayor Mamdani has consistently affirmed his intention to bear witness and honor the families, survivors, and first responders, whose lives were forever changed by the attacks,” September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said in a statement. “In doing so, he will be carrying out the same responsibility that New York City mayors before him have undertaken: to stand with all New Yorkers in remembrance and honor those we lost. We strongly condemn the anti-American accusations and Islamophobic sentiment underlying the effort seeking to prevent him from being at Ground Zero.”

In response to the statement, Galante told the New York Post that the petition has “nothing to do with Islam or Mamdani being Muslim.” In his interview with Popular Information, Galante described Mamdani as “a Muslim that has thoughts to get rid of all Jewish people, and to agree with 9/11.”

From the New York Post to CBS News

The New York Post’s reporting was quickly picked up by CBS News New York, which published an article on the evening of July 27. The piece began: “Thousands of 9/11 victims’ families are asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend this year’s solemn remembrance ceremony.” After Popular Information contacted the listed author of the piece, that line was struck from the piece and the headline was changed that evening to: “Petition asking NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend 9/11 remembrance ceremony purportedly draws thousands of signatures.”

No disclosure was added to the piece noting the initial error or correction.

On July 28, the headline was changed a third time to: “Petition from 9/11 families asks NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend remembrance ceremony.” This version, which remains in plase today, falsely suggests that the petition represents the view of 9/11 families as a group.

On July 28 at 3:08 p.m., the CBS News New York story was picked up by the main CBS News Instagram account, which has 3.3 million followers.

On the evening of July 29, however, the video was removed from CBS News’ Instagram account without explanation. CBS News also reposted an X post from CBS News New York linking to the story, which was also removed.

“CBS News did do a social post following CBS News New York’s reporting,” a source inside CBS News with direct knowledge told Popular Information. “Once we were told that CBS News New York’s reporting was inaccurate, we took our post down.”

So why is the CBS News New York article still online if CBS News believes it’s inaccurate? The CBS News source emphasized that “CBS News New York is entirely separate from CBS News.” While they share the same parent company they are “in two different silos.”

A spokesperson for CBS News New York issued a statement to Popular Information: “The story broadcast on CBS New York was accurate, and the underlying facts reported in the digital article were correct. The headline and opening sentence of the digital article were later updated for added clarity. An editor’s note should have accompanied those updates, and we regret the omission.”

Fox News and other outlets butcher the story

As the story spread through right-wing media, it became further distorted. On the July 27 edition of The Evening Edit on Fox Business, anchor Elizabeth MacDonald falsely reported that “9/11 families, more than 15,000 want Mamdani banned from 9/11 ceremonies.”

In a July 28 editorial, the Washington Times claimed that “[m]ore than 1,100 family members of 9/11 victims have asked organizers of a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the World Trade Center attack to exclude New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.” The publication appears to be conflating the total number of signatures the New York Post originally published with family members.

The story got a major boost from Washington Times reporter Kerry Picket, who had previously covered the petition. On July 29, Picket posed the following question to Trump:

We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9-11. And a good number of 9-11 families have called on New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani to not attend a number of these memorial services. What are your thoughts on that?

Trump responded that “anybody having to do with 9-11 right now on the victim side, and there are a lot of them. They’re very unhappy with what’s going on in New York, and they’re very unhappy with the mayor.”

Trump’s response was featured on CBS News’ X account, which has 9.7 million followers.