On Monday the Associated Press reported that “New York hospitals released more than 6,300 recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes during the height” of the pandemic under a “controversial, now-scrapped policy.”
That policy resulted in 6,500 deaths of elderly people from COVID-19. The response of CNN? Brotherly laughter and the Orwellian memory hole.
Cuomo’s ‘self-investigation’ that lo and behold showed he and Zucker did nothing wrong (except for killing well over 6,500 seniors and then lying about it) isn’t the end of the story. NY Legislature and U.S. Congress both investigating. https://t.co/GQA2HxrnpO
— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) July 8, 2020
The Associated Press (AP) chronicled how New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and other state officials pathetically insisted the decision was “was not to blame for one of the nation’s highest nursing home death tolls.”
But a thorough search of CNN on-air transcripts shows that CNN completely ignored the blockbuster AP report on-air Monday and Tuesday. No coverage whatsoever. CNN’s website had no digital coverage either.
The AP story reported how “The directive was intended to help free up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged. But several relatives, patient advocates and nursing administrators who spoke to the AP at the time blamed the policy for helping to spread the virus among the state’s most fragile residents.”
When asked by CNN anchor Chris Cuomo asked his brother Governor Cuomo about the issue, the latter called the deaths “the most tragic situation” and pointed to how there were nursing home deaths “all across the country” and said “we have to figure out how to do it better the next time before the next virus wave occurs.”
A blatant dodge of the question. How does his brother, a hard-nosed journalist, respond?
“I’m wowed by what you did and more importantly, I’m wowed by how you did it. Obviously, I love you as a brother. Obviously, I think you’re the best politician in the country.”
Such objectivity, such professionalism, so CNN.
After the pesky subject of the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers because of the governor’s policies was shoved out of the way, the Brothers Cuomo went for shtick.
“Is it true that this was the swab that the nurse was actually using on you [for the virus test]?” the CNN host asked his brother, while holding a large cotton swab. The anchorman then quickly followed by presenting the governor with an even larger swab, asking if that was the one the nurse used on him.
Nose jokes. No doubt their act went over well with the loved ones of those who died in those nursing homes.
The Hill reporter Joe Concha told media recently, “Gov. Cuomo, in terms of his performance, for Chris Cuomo to say that he is wowed by it, and how he did it, shows that he shouldn’t play a TV anchor anymore, he should go work for the Cuomo campaign if and when he runs for president, and be his spokesman because that’s basically, it appears, to be his job at this point.”
At least the ratings-challenged news network is consistent. Recent headlines on the website of the should-be-named “Cuomo News Network” include, “Andrew Cuomo may be the single most popular politician in America right now,” and “Gov. Cuomo got tested for COVID-19 at a press conference to show how easy it is” and “Andrew Cuomo is down for Robert De Niro to play him.”
This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on July 9, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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