“Good evening. Chris Cuomo is off tonight.” That sentence, uttered at 1:02:16 AM Thursday in a re-airing of Wednesday’s Anderson Cooper ...
“Good evening. Chris Cuomo is off tonight.” That sentence, uttered at 1:02:16 AM Thursday in a re-airing of Wednesday’s Anderson Cooper 360°, is the only time the name “Cuomo” has been spoken on CNN all day. The day after news of yet another scandal involving New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo broke. A story that involves his brother, CNN’s own Chris Cuomo. Who was “off tonight.”
CNN did not report Thursday on this latest major scandal involving the governor, which involves allegations of favoritism and outright nepotism in his leadership and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state. That leadership has, however, been the subject of a great deal of commentary on CNN and indeed in the press at large for the last year. It has resulted in a book deal, an Emmy, a star-studded birthday bash, and paeans to his leadership from celebrities and his brother’s colleagues, alike.
But that was 2020. In 2021, Cuomo the Governor faces an increasingly large and still growing list of scandals, and Cuomo the Brother has had to share in the flak.
But that is not all that he shared in, as reported first this morning by the Albany Times Union. “New York Department of Health officials were directed by the governor and the state’s health commissioner “to conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor’s relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration,” the explosive investigative piece reports.
The story has been making all the media rounds, including at rivals Fox News and MSNBC, as well as dozens of outlets in print and online. Just not at CNN. At CNN there has been radio silence all day. Mediaite conducted two separate transcript searches from two different services to verify what we’d also witnessed monitoring the channel: No report on the story, no mention of the name.
It is a tough spot to be in, to have news such as this involving one of the station’s own employees, a face of the network. That spot was made much tougher by their own hand, in bringing the Governor on for softball interviews, to chat with his brother in a mix of casual conversation and pseudo-reporting on a major pandemic in the state.
A tough spot to be in, as allegations mounted that Gov. Cuomo had hidden deaths, padding the success résumé that CNN was relentlessly touting. It was a falsified résumé which prompted CNN’s Brian Stelter to refer to Cuomo’s “remarkable show of leadership” and “providing hope” in his role. A padded résumé that resulted in CNN’s Chris Cillizza calling him the “face” and “stern but loving parent” of America’s pandemic response, while speculating on the possibility of Cuomo running for President.
Stelter, by the way, brought up the story in his newsletter, and CNN’s tepid “Stand by your man” canned PR response. Good enough for email but not good enough for the airwaves, apparently.
Yes, it’s a hard spot to be in. Human beings often suffer in prisons of their own making.
CNN’s prime time line-up might address the Cuomo scandal on Thursday night. Or they might not. They didn’t on Wednesday night.
But one thing is for sure. Chris Cuomo is off tonight. That breaking report from CNN’s own Anderson Cooper.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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