CNN, MSNBC ignore Andrew Cuomo nursing home death scandal
February 17, 2021
In January, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James released a report, which revealed that New York knowingly undercounted nursing home deaths. In the wake of the report, one of Andrew Cuomo’s top aides admitted that they withheld the data out of fear that it would be used against them by federal prosecutors.
The scandal led to a wave of criticism from both sides of the political aisle. Fourteen Democrat New York senators support having Cuomo’s emergency powers rescinded. There’s now a petition quickly gathering signatures to impeach him.
However, there are a few prominent voices who have been silent on the issue – most notably Andrew Cuomo’s brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo. Throughout the pandemic, Chris hosted Andrew on his show for softball interviews. Yet on Monday night, Chris Cuomo did not even mention the scandal surrounding his brother. His fellow anchor and pal, Don Lemon, also failed to address it.
Even the Washington Post is calling out Chris Cuomo and CNN for the lack of coverage.
But CNN’s conflict of interest with Andrew Cuomo extends even further than that. The network’s president, Jeff Zucker, recently announced that he would be stepping down. One of the top candidates to replace him is Allison Gollust, who served as Andrew Cuomo’s director of communications for a few months before joining CNN back in 2013.
CNN wasn’t the only network to gloss over Andrew Cuomo’s scandal. MSNBC, which has similarly failed to press Cuomo on the issue of nursing home deaths, did not mention the coverup at all on their Monday night primetime news hour. It wasn’t until Tuesday – days after the controversy broke – that Ari Melber finally covered it on his show.
As of this writing on Wednesday, Chris Cuomo has still failed to address his brother’s nursing home scandal. How can we trust CNN to tell people the truth when they refuse to cover a massive scandal because it reflects badly on one of their hosts?