The irredeemable press coverage of Andrew Cuomo

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in hot water Friday as it was revealed the night before that his administration hid the true number of nursing home deaths out of fear the real toll would be used against them by federal prosecutors.

The New York Post broke the massive cover-up. It cites Cuomo’s top aide Melissa De Rosa telling Democratic allies that the Cuomo administration rejected a legislative request for the nursing home death toll in August because “right around the same time, [then-President Donald J. Trump] turns this into a giant political football.” 

I’m certainly glad there’s one paper of record operating in New York City. Nursing home deaths have long been a sore eye for Gov. Cuomo and one the mainstream news media has refused to cover. 

Now that President Trump is no longer in office, it’s conveniently coming to light. Following the Post’s scoop, the New York Times reported (more than eight hours later): “Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide told lawmakers that New York withheld data on the virus’s toll in nursing homes to forestall potential investigations.”

New York’s nursing home failure is a story that has been well known (and reported on by conservative outlets) since early May of last year. The Daily Caller first broke Gov. Cuomo’s health department was undercounting nursing home deaths that month. Even The Associated Press reported on the missing numbers in August.

Yet, those stories gained no traction in the mainstream media. They continued to peddle soft profiles of Mr. Cuomo’s tenacity and leadership. They gladly ran with Gov. Cuomo’s attacks on President Trump and gleefully reported how the federal government was at fault. They willfully ignored what was right in front of their faces because it wasn’t politically expedient.

The absolute gaslighting was unparalleled. 

U.S. News declared him “America’s governor,” with a “take-charge attitude and comforting manner;” the New York Times said his televised press briefings were “articulate, consistent and often tinged with empathy,” calling them “must-see television.” 

CNN heralded Gov. Cuomo’s coronavirus response as “truth versus mendacity,” when comparing it to the Trump administration. MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace said Gov. Cuomo was “everything that Trump isn’t — honest, direct, brave.”

CNBC ran the headline in July: “Fauci holds up New York as model for fighting coronavirus — ‘They did it correctly.’”

The list goes on and on and on. Heck, Gov. Cuomo published a book on his leadership in the middle of the pandemic last year and was awarded an Emmy. 

The fact of the matter is, last year, Gov. Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept more than 9,000 coronavirus patients, causing the virus to spread like wildfire among New York’s most vulnerable population. Why didn’t he send these patients to the USNS Comfort or Javits Center? Because in doing so, he would have to give President Trump credit.

Once Gov. Cuomo realized the error of his judgment, to avoid political backlash, he then manipulated New York’s nursing home deaths to make it look like New York was doing better than other states. He refused to comply with FOIA requests and slow-rolled official data. 

News reports of this — last year — were discounted by the mainstream media as right-wing propaganda. In an effort to take down Trump, they had no interest in reporting the truth. It was an epic failure of our fourth estate, and one that should be recounted by anyone wondering why trust in journalism is at an all-time low.