Media slaps Andrew Cuomo on wrist in light of report his state undercounted deaths
January 29, 2021
This week, new revelations arose about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, after months of the media praising his response.
According to a report released by the New York State Attorney General, it appears that New York may have knowingly undercounted its nursing home deaths by as much as 50%.
Cuomo was criticized last year for his policy that mandated nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive patients, which may very well have led to the increased number of deaths. After the initial controversy, New York “quietly changed the way it [reported] long-term care fatalities.”
So if we’re to believe the New York AG, it appears that Cuomo’s administration knew what they did was wrong and attempted to cover their tracks, likely helped by the heavily positive coverage of his response. Even after the new report came out, CNN’s Chris Cillizza gently called Cuomo’s response “less stellar than it seemed.” – this after his network’s long portrayal of Cuomo as hero, often vs. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as villain.
Cuomo’s own brother, Chris, long avoided asking him about it on his CNN show. When he finally did ask, Gov. Cuomo dodged the question – and Chris did not press the issue.
This comes at the end of a long string of reports in which the media hailed Andrew Cuomo as a savior of sorts. Talk show hosts from Ellen DeGeneres to Trevor Noah sang his praises. Stephen Colbert lauded the governor as projecting “an air of much-needed competence during the epidemic.”
The L.A. Times reported that Cuomo “approves of people who identify as ‘Cuomosexuals.’” Politico deemed him a “social media superstar.” CNN had him on night after night for softball interviews with his brother.
The ladies of The View had him on to talk about his love life and help him hawk his new book: “American Crisis: Lessons in Leadership from the Covid-19 Pandemic.”
That’s right – lessons in leadership from the guy who oversaw more coronavirus deaths than any other state, many of which were a direct result of his own policies.
Lessons in leadership from the guy whose citizens are fleeing his state in droves.
Lessons in leadership from the guy who destroyed hundreds of small businesses via his dictatorial crack-down on public gatherings and dining.
The media weren’t as interested in those minor details though. They were too busy praising him as the “politician of the moment.” And they are reticent to back down on that narrative.
With the recent release of the AG report, it now appears that the biggest lesson we’ll learn from Cuomo’s leadership is how to cover up the number of people whose deaths you likely caused.