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Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support

ESPN commentator wants his soon-to-be 18-year-old to see paycheck deductions.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
AP Photo/Matt Patterson

What this story says

  • ESPN's Stephen A. Smith stated his daughter supports New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
  • Smith plans to have his daughter, who is nearing 18, get a job to experience paycheck deductions.
  • He believes her support for Mamdani is due to her not having paid bills yet.
  • RedState reported that middle-income New York City residents typically lose 30-35% of their pay to taxes and deductions.

Who covered it

Left 0%(0)Centre 17%(1)Right 83%(5)

Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

59/100

Hype

68/100

6 sources · methodology

Thin on the left so far

None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith said on Trevor Noah's "What Now?" podcast that his daughter supports New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Smith, whose daughter Nyla is nearing 18 years old, plans to have her take a job so she can see firsthand the amount deducted from her paycheck.

Smith stated that he knows why his daughter supports Mamdani: "cause she ain’t pay a damn bill yet." He intends for her to get a job, "I don’t give a damn if it’s for a month," so she can see "what you say then" when "more than half your s*** is missing" from her earnings.

Tax deductions in New York City

RedState reported that middle-income residents in New York City typically have 30% to 35% of their paychecks deducted for taxes and other standard payroll expenses. The outlet also noted that New York City has the highest combined state and local tax burden in the United States.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated reports mention the specific podcast episode where Stephen A. Smith made these comments, nor do they name the host, Trevor Noah. The centre-rated report mentions the podcast and the host.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 15 Nov 2026, 02:30, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.

Centre

1 rated outlet

  • The centre-rated report from The Comeback led with Stephen A. Smith's statement about his daughter's support for Zohran Mamdani and his belief that it stems from her not yet paying bills. The digest noted Smith's plan to have her get a job to experience paycheck deductions.

Right

5 rated outlets

  • The right-rated reports focused on Stephen A. Smith's plan to have his daughter get a job to dissuade her from supporting Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whom they characterised as socialist. RedState, in its full report, quoted Smith saying he wants to see his daughter's reaction "when she sees that check" and "more than half your s*** is missing." The outlet also stated that middle-income New York City residents typically see 30% to 35% of their pay go toward taxes and deductions.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support?
Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 17% are rated centre, 83% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support biased?
Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support is one event reported by 6 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Stephen A. Smith plans job for daughter over Mamdani support?
6 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Stephen A. Smith say about his daughter's political views?
Stephen A. Smith stated on Trevor Noah's podcast that his daughter supports New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Smith believes this support comes from her not yet having to pay bills or experience taxes firsthand.
What is Stephen A. Smith's plan for his daughter?
Smith plans to have his daughter, who is nearing 18, get a job for at least a month. He wants her to see how much of her paycheck is deducted in taxes and other expenses.
How much of a paycheck is typically deducted in New York City?
According to RedState, middle-income residents in New York City typically have between 30% and 35% of their paychecks deducted for taxes and standard payroll expenses.

Read it at the source

6 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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