A woman whose mother passed away in a New York nursing home has accused NBC News and other media outlets of pressuring her into not saying “Cuomo failed us.”
Dawn Best, whose mother died in April of this past year, told ‘Fox & Friends’ that NBC specifically asked her to say “New York failed us” rather than naming New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“‘Can you say that a different way without Governor Cuomo’s name, and just say New York failed you?'” Best claimed were the instructions from an NBC reporter.
“So I had no choice,” she continued. “So I had to say, ‘New York failed me.'”
Best said that NBC wasn’t the only outlet to sway her on avoiding mentioning Cuomo by name.
“Well, I kinda got used to it because the media was never letting me say ‘Governor Cuomo’ all along, and it was being cut out of every interview that I was in,” she claimed.
Best stated that she began to add “Governor Cuomo” to the beginning of her sentences so the media outlets would be forced to keep his name in their clips.
Video courtesy of @kilmeade who did a wonderful job. pic.twitter.com/ggnaTZTm0l
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 1, 2021
Woman Not Allowed to Say Cuomo’s Name In NBC News Interview
Best went on to accuse Governor Cuomo of being criminally negligent in his handling of nursing home patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting the media had helped cover for his actions.
“He signed the 3/25 directive, knowing what would happen,” she accused. “I believe his actions were criminal. He needs to be held accountable.”
Cuomo famously issued an executive order forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for coronavirus.
The order prohibited facilities from requiring incoming patients “to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission,” and may have contributed to well over 13,000 nursing home deaths in New York.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) October 14, 2020
An explosive report last week from New York State Attorney General Letitia James (D) accused the Cuomo administration of complicating matters in tracking numbers by “undercounting” and “obscuring” the number of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19.
The administration spent months stonewalling on producing those numbers and the AG report made it glaringly obvious why.
NEW: @TishJames releases scathing report on New York State Nursing Homes. Among the findings is that @HealthNYGov UNDERREPORTED nursing home deaths due to Covid by 50%. 20 facilities remain under investigation.
Big development here is James taking aim squarely at @NYGovCuomo
— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) January 28, 2021
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Janice Dean Takes NBC to Task
Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, whose in-laws were both victims of COVID-19, and in whom nursing homes in New York played a part, took NBC News to task for effectively covering for Cuomo.
Dean hammered NBC and anchor Lestor Holt for their “disgusting” actions and demanded an apology.
“So [NBC News, Lester Holt, and the Today Show] censored one of my friends who lost a loved one in a nursing home,” Dean tweeted over the weekend. “She wanted to say ‘[Cuomo] failed us’ in the interview and they told her to say ‘New York failed us’ instead.”
“The mainstream is STILL protecting this guy,” she fumed. “Disgusting.”
Shame on you @LesterHoltNBC @NBCNews @TODAYshow. New York State did not fail us. The governor, his administration and his health department FAILED US. You are a disgrace to all families. Just like @andrewcuomo.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) January 30, 2021
Dean tweeted that her friend Best was “still waiting for an apology” from NBC News.
Cuomo recently claimed it didn’t matter that people died in a nursing home in-part because of his own directive.
“Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,” he said.
Shades of Hillary Clinton’s famous ‘what difference does it make’ line.
