Outlets across the spectrum weigh in with perspectives on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks.

"Look Away": Opinion writer Liz Peek (Lean Right bias) for LizPeek.com (Lean Right) said "there are many in our country who want us to pretend that the greatest attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor never happened." According to Peek, "They want us to look away from the Muslim terrorists who flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and who drove another plane full of innocents to their deaths in a grassy Pennsylvania field. They want us to forget that on that day in 2001, Americans came under attack for reasons that few understood, from a far away people who loathe our culture, our freedoms and our country." Peek added that "When Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., dismissively says, 'Some people did something,' she is trying to erase the truth. She wants us to forget who it was who purposefully killed 2,977 people." Peek urged that "Americans must not tolerate this rewriting of recent history," saying that "Twenty-five years later, we still mourn the friends we lost, the brave first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice, and thousands of others who died at Ground Zero."

"Bigoted Glass Ceiling": Dr. Jalal Baig, writing opinion for MS Now (Left), said that since the morning of September 11, 2001, "Islam became synonymous with terrorism in much of the American public's collective imagination," adding that "the effects of widespread Islamophobia have touched my life intimately." Even 25 years later, "Islamophobia remains a mainstream feature in American politics" according to Baig, who said "disgusting Islamophobic statements have been routinely uttered at the highest levels of government." She highlighted the "political rise of both Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed," saying they have "challenged a bigoted glass ceiling," and that many of the "attacks against them remind us of the continued chasm between the nation's ideals and its sobering reality."

"Lost Sight": Opinion writer Jay Rogers (Lean Right) for The Hill (Center) worked in the World Trade Center for just over a year. He still thinks about "how ordinary that building felt to me once, and how it became the opening scene of a war most Americans didn't know they were already losing." Rogers said, "Osama bin Laden was a known, growing threat before 2001, and the government had chances to remove him it didn't take." According to Rogers, the cause "was a legally cautious, capture-first policy, shaped by an assassination ban dating back to Gerald Ford," adding that it "was a mindset left over from treating terrorism as a criminal justice and law enforcement question." 25 years later, the same complacency, Rogers said, "shows up closer to home now," explaining that "four years of open borders brought gangsters and traffickers into our neighborhoods. Socialism is on the rise nationwide—gaining ground where it would have been laughed out a generation ago—because too many have lost sight of what makes this country worth defending." Rogers laments, saying "My old office tower is gone. My neighbor is gone. The only tribute worth giving either of them is to keep the country's defenses—physical and cultural—current, not nostalgic."

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its "final update" on the Cyclospora outbreak reportedly caused by Taylor Farms de Mexico's shredded iceberg lettuce.

The Details: "This outbreak has ended," the CDC declared on Friday. "The contaminated lettuce linked to this outbreak is no longer available in stores or restaurants… As of September 11, 2026, FDA continues to investigate the cause of the contamination." The lettuce was recalled in mid-July.

RELATED: Are Food Recalls Really on the Rise? | AllSides

The agency also updated its general data hub about the parasite and said that while "cyclosporiasis season" in the US is May through August, it "continues to identify and investigate additional cases beyond this date" due to delayed reporting.

The CDC cited "19,595 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis acquired in the US," along with thousands of others that may have been acquired outside the US or are not laboratory-confirmed. "For comparison," it said, "1,180 cases were reported in the US between May 1 and August 31, 2025" and further noted, "The true number of people sick with cyclosporiasis is likely higher than the number reported."

Questions Remain: Outlets across the political spectrum highlighted several ongoing questions pertaining to the case. Associated Press (Lean Left bias) emphasized, "it still isn't clear how sewage could have contaminated enough food to sicken so many people," and Newsweek (Center) furthered, "scientists never identified a Cyclospora-positive lettuce sample. And although lettuce emerged as the leading suspect based on epidemiological and traceback evidence, the precise point at which contamination occurred may never be known." Newsweek also criticized that "no definitive source was ever identified" in many of the additional cases (though investigations are reportedly ongoing).

New York Post (Right) highlighted conflicting reports from Taylor Farms and the FDA: "Taylor Farms initially challenged the government's findings that its lettuce was contaminated and claimed the FDA 'apologized' to them about conflicting test results for its produce, adding that the agency made a 'mistake.' The FDA insisted that it did not apologize to Taylor Farms, noting that the company recalled 236,192 cases of salad due to potential contamination."

Differences In Framing: While Associated Press emphasized the outbreak as the "largest" in US history, Newsweek more accurately called it the "largest known" in US history. And while New York Post focused its report on a new multistate outbreak of salmonella, Associated Press linked the cyclosporiasis outbreak to "a worsening problem: US regulators are conducting fewer international inspections to catch contaminated produce before it lands on American plates" – a recent narrative consistent on the left.

RELATED: RFK Jr. Urges Healthier Diet, Politico Says Cyclospora Outbreak Hinders Effort | AllSides

Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary. Image Credit: CDC