Old People Die, And Die, And Die Under Cuomo Policy. The Media Naps.
Karol Markowicz writes at Newsweek about how the Cuomo admin forced nursing homes to take in people even if they had tested positive for COVID-19, causing the deaths of thousands of elderly people:
And to fend off an investigation, the Cuomo administration underestimated the number of nursing home deaths by 40%. The true number was 15,000, not 9,056.But this isn't just a government scandal. It's a media scandal. For while the Cuomo administration was sentencing seniors to death, the media was busy fawning over Cuomo in a series of softball interviews, many of them conducted by his own brother.
Cuomo has been a television mainstay throughout the crisis, particularly on CNN where his brother, Chris Cuomo, is a host. But it wasn't just his brother who fawned. A June interview with CNN's Chris Cilizza provided Cuomo an opportunity to tout his performance while criticizing that of then-president Donald Trump and Republican governors who had not gone along with economy-crushing lockdowns. Cilizza was more than happy to assist.
...On the numbers, it was actually quite easy to disagree with Cuomo's self-assessment that he had done a great job.
But few in the national media landscape would.
It wasn't just Cilizza and it wasn't just CNN, though CNN egregiously led the way in the fawning coverage of the governor. The network had a penchant for handing off interviews of the governor to his adoring brother. They had spent the spring months joshing about big noses, who their ma liked best and whose hands looked more like bananas. It had its charm, but as the pandemic wore on and the interviews continued, it should have been a red flag to anyone concerned with good journalism or a separation between government and the press which is supposed to cover them impartially.
...And anyone who tried to buck the trend was denounced. Fox News Meteorologist Janice Dean lost both of her in-laws in nursing homes following the Cuomo directive and became an outspoken activist, trying her best to find out the truth about what happened. She suffered abuse from the Cuomo administration, including Cuomo's top advisor Rich Azzopardi, who told the Daily Mail, "Last I checked she's not a credible source on anything except maybe the weather."
But Dean turned out to be more credible than Cuomo. New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report in January which found that the Cuomo administration undercounted nursing home deaths. The story, of a Democratic Attorney General targeting New York's Democratic governor, was the first crack in the media narrative.
Back in early April, when the sirens were shrieking nonstop throughout the city, responding to sick COVID-19 patients and keeping New Yorkers up all night, Cilizza recorded a segment for his video series called "The Point" where he gushed that in his daily press conferences, Cuomo alternates between "cheerleader, psychologist and stern but loving parents." He then told the governor to run for president.
"Life has a way of changing your best-laid plans," Cilizza concluded his Cuomo campaign video.
With the latest news of cover-ups and lies in the Cuomo administration, let's hope they do. But it's not just Cuomo who owes New Yorkers an apology and a commitment to do better and to be more honest. It's the media who covers him.
Did anyone not know this who cared to know it? The coverup was pretty incompetent.
What is worse is even if you accepted the fake numbers New York was still covid death central for the US. Didn't stop New Yorkers from proudly proclaiming what a great job Cuomo did. It wasn't just the media. New Yorkers in general were desperate to show how much better they were than anyone else. Evidence to the contrary just resulted in screaming and name calling.
Ben at February 15, 2021 5:50 AM
The media didn't nap. They sang his praises, to such an extent that he did a thing also singing his praises, for which he received an Emmy Award. At the same time, they also decried Ron DeSantis and called him granny killer.
And then they wonder why they get called "fake news" and have lower polling numbers than Congress.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 15, 2021 6:14 AM
It's worse than that. The reporting was delayed to hide the numbers from the Department of Justice, an aide to Cuomo admitted in a virtual call to state lawmakers.
So, the Cuomo Administration deliberately withheld evidence to avoid investigation and potential prosecution. Methinks there's a big round of blamestorming about to go down.
That Emmy's lookin' kinda tarnished now, ain't it?
Conan the Grammarian at February 15, 2021 6:20 AM
I guess Cuomo is about to find out that it's not the crime, it's the cover up that gets you.
But I won't be terribly surprised if he skates.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 15, 2021 6:40 AM
I wonder if Kamala will privately push for prosecution in order to cull him from the 2024 herd.
Conan the Grammarian at February 15, 2021 9:04 AM
I wonder if Kamala will privately push for prosecution in order to cull him from the 2024 herd.
Conan the Grammarian at February 15, 2021 9:04 AM
I don’t think that will help her much. Her negatives have always been sky high.
Isab at February 15, 2021 9:23 AM
> I don’t think that will help her much.
Let's try it anyway.
Crid at February 15, 2021 9:40 AM
Yes, yes, but how can we use this against Trump?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at February 15, 2021 11:00 AM
And there is Gog, asking the question others fear to ask.
As for Kamala culling Cuomo, that you even phrase it like that is telling Conan. Any prosecution would only be an exercise in political management. Actual criminality isn't a serious concern anymore.
As for the Emmy being tarnished, it's an Emmy. He is a politician. Supposedly not an actor.
Ben at February 15, 2021 11:44 AM
Ben's "Did anyone not know this who cared to know it?" is the most concise and damming question in public life today. It's not just a media thing.
And it applies across the polity. No matter how much documentation you provide to illustrate a politician's faults, the meaning evaporates for anyone who wants to feel flattered in their admiration for Biden/Kamala/Trump/Obama/W/Bill & Hillary and back through the mists of time.
Y'know, there's a considerable school of thought (growing especially deep in the silicon valley) that a great problem with politicians — as well as department heads throughout government — is that these people aren't technical in any field. They've never built anything or written checks with their own money for a risky idea, or hired talent and made a payroll. They don't know markets, resource chains or finance. And Dear God, they know nothing of science or engineering.
(That made Fauci's failures especially poignant: He knows his field as well as maybe anyone in America. Having Trump in the White House doesn't excuse the errors.)
Read a bit about Cuomo's background: There was a good long read in Vanity Fair some time ago describing his marriage into the Kennedy family. He's been a transparently ambitious weasel his whole life.
Cuomo killed people, lots of them, and stupidly… in medical as well as administrative contexts.
But until this week, I was certain he was going to skate. There are entire generations of similar incompetents throughout government who won't be held accountable, but Andrew Cuomo's humiliation would be a reassuring outcome.
Crid at February 15, 2021 4:39 PM
Apparently most NY voters still think Cuomo did a great job with COVID - never mind that even NY's massive underestimates made it one of the worst 5 states.
As for Harris pushing for his prosecution, given her track record as a DA, that's the one thing that could make me even a little sympathetic towards him.
markm at February 18, 2021 2:51 PM
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