The angle elicited national attention in the "New York Post", "TV Guide", "Variety" and other major media outlets. In response to the criticism, UPN decided that it would monitor the storyline closely and that it did not want the Hassan character on its network that week. Hassan later delivered a promo to the live crowd for the July 14, 2005, episode of "SmackDown!", but when UPN announced that the segment would be edited, WWE decided to host the video of the segment on its official website. In the segment, Hassan reiterated that he was an Arab-American and that the American people automatically and unfairly assumed that he was a terrorist. Despite being in character, he referred to the real-world media coverage of the storyline, singling out the "New York Post's" Don Kaplan by name and denouncing his description of the events on "SmackDown!", such as Kaplan's comment of the masked men being "Arabs in ski masks". On the July 14, 2005, episode of "SmackDown!", Hassan's absence was explained by a statement delivered by his attorney Thomas Whitney, Esquire which said that Hassan refused to appear on the show until The Great American Bash due to the way he had been treated by the media and WWE fans.