Simply three months in the past, the airwaves have been full of damaging information about New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, accused of harassing not less than 9 girls, in addition to concealing the true toll of nursing house fatalities within the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
But like a lightweight change, the published networks abruptly ended their adverse protection of Cuomo in late March. Between January 28 and March 29, Media Analysis Middle analysts tallied simply over 100 minutes of Cuomo scandal protection on ABC, CBS and NBC’s night newscasts, but not a single second within the 12 weeks which have adopted.
It’s not as if Cuomo himself has disappeared from TV, simply his scandals. Since late March, these newscasts have featured Cuomo in a dozen night information tales concerning the state’s pandemic response, in protection that echoes the positive treatment they awarded the governor in 2020.
On the Could 3 Night Information, for instance, CBS’s Mola Lenghi allowed Cuomo time to tout New York’s “good reopening.” Then on June 15, ABC’s Stephanie Ramos ran a clip of the governor congratulating himself as most pandemic restrictions have been lastly eliminated: “What New York has performed is extraordinary.”
Because the liberal media assist the scandal-scarred Cuomo mission an aura of normality, viewers aren’t listening to the entire story:
■ Sexual Harassment: Earlier this 12 months, the highest Cuomo scandal when it comes to airtime have been the accusations of sexual harassment leveled towards the governor from 9 completely different girls (81 minutes). But for the entire curiosity they confirmed in February and March, these newscasts didn’t report Cuomo’s tin-eared deflection on Could 13 that the issue wasn’t what he did or stated, it was that the ladies felt “uncomfortable.”
In response to NBCNews.com (however ignored on NBC Nightly Information) Cuomo claimed: “Harassment isn’t making somebody really feel uncomfortable — that isn’t harassment. If I simply made you are feeling uncomfortable, that isn’t harassment. That’s you feeling uncomfortable.” The lawyer for one among Cuomo’s accusers stated the remark confirmed “an alarming diploma of ignorance about what constitutes sexual harassment.”
The networks additionally failed to say a June 8 report from the Washington Submit that the New York state lawyer normal’s investigation had expanded and was now “searching for to find out whether or not legal guidelines banning retaliation towards sexual harassment victims have been damaged.” Certainly one of Cuomo’s accusers, former staffer Lindsey Boylan, “stated her personnel file was leaked in an effort to smear her.”
■ Nursing House Deaths: From January by March, the networks spent 17 minutes masking Cuomo’s nursing house scandal, however have since refused to cowl new developments. Thus, not one of the Huge Three talked about an April New York Times report detailing that “the hassle by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s workplace to obscure the pandemic demise toll in New York nursing properties was far larger than beforehand recognized….Cuomo’s most senior aides engaged in a sustained effort to stop the state’s personal well being officers, together with the commissioner, Howard Zucker, from releasing the true demise toll to the general public or sharing it with state lawmakers.”
Then in June, the New York State Bar Affiliation blamed Cuomo’s early 2020 directive for driving up the death toll within the state’s nursing properties, and concluded that it “remained in impact weeks longer than obligatory.” As NewsBusters showed, not one of the three broadcast networks discovered this bombshell worthy of time on their night newscasts.
■ $5 Million Guide Deal: On March 31, the New York Occasions reported Cuomo’s “most senior aides” moved to “reshape a report about nursing house deaths in a means that insulated the governor from criticism and burnished his picture,” simply as Cuomo was getting ready to securing a multi-million greenback ebook deal.
In early Could, the general public learned just how lucrative Cuomo’s ebook deal was: $5.12 million, with greater than $3 million remaining after deducting authorized and enhancing bills. According to the Albany Times Union, in late Could “Cuomo’s workplace denied three Freedom of Info legislation requests” for public information that will present whether or not or not governmental workers had hung out engaged on Cuomo’s ebook. The denial was based mostly on a authorized argument {that a} state ethics commissioner referred to as “absurd.”
After all, none of those revelations discovered their solution to ABC, CBS or NBC night information viewers.
■ The Chris Cuomo Connection: The governor’s scandals have additionally ensnared his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, however the networks have barely observed. On March 25, ABC and CBS gave a mixed 62 seconds — and NBC gave nothing — to accusations Andrew Cuomo ordered “prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor’s family in addition to influential individuals with ties to the administration,” with a prime well being division official pressured to go to Chris Cuomo’s residence on Lengthy Island to manage his take a look at.
Then in Could, the Washington Submit revealed that CNN’s Cuomo “inspired his brother to take a defiant place [on the harassment accusations] and to not resign from the governor’s workplace,” recommendation Andrew Cuomo appears to have taken. None of the Big Three night newscasts stated a phrase about this chapter of the Cuomo household scandal.
