The ‘Public’ Broadcasters Go Soft on Hasan Piker
6th September 2026
Just like the networks spent months helpfully skipping over the Nazi tattoo on the chest of Maine Democrat Graham Platner, they have largely ignored radical leftist influencer Hasan Piker, who has campaigned with Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. ABC and NBC haven’t found him, while CBS broke the mold with two stories.
The “PBS NewsHour” hasn’t mentioned Piker, although there was a mention on the PBS show “Washington Week with The Atlantic” on Aug. 14. The show’s host, Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, volunteered: “The party has developed something of a Hasan Piker problem. This is a popular hard-left Twitch streamer who has said that America deserved 9/11, that Jews are inbred. He’s praised Mao. He’s praised Houthi terrorists and so on. Democrats are extremely worried about the presence of people like this who are no longer at the margin, who are creating, let’s say, loads of new ads, if nothing else, for Republicans.”
National Public Radio offered more coverage, but none of it dipped to the level of loopy detail that Goldberg did. “America deserved 9/11” never came up, or the Houthis, or praising Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong as a great leader. On the June 15 “All Things Considered,” Elena Moore, who covers young voters for NPR, tamely described Piker as “a leftist streamer who’s been stumping for progressive candidates. He’s got an audience of millions across social media, but he’s also, Ailsa, divisive because of his strong anti-Israel beliefs.”