CNN was on the defensive last week when they were forced to explain why anchor Chris Cuomo was allowed to interview his older brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo when it had long been against company policy.
Spewing out Presstitute B.S., the Cartoon News Network told Newsweek,
“The early months of the pandemic crisis were an extraordinary time. We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American families were struggling with was of significant human interest. As a result, we made an exception to a rule that we have had in place since 2013, which prevents Chris from interviewing and covering his brother, and that rule remains in place today.”
Now, with Governor Cuomo under attack for the nursing home scandal – lying about the true number of nursing home victims who died from COVID, in part from his ordering of elderly in hospitals with COVID to be sent back to nursing homes – CNN is backtracking on letting Chris Cuomo interview his big brother.
“We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American families were struggling with was of significant human interest,” the network told Erik Wemple, the Washington Post’s media reporter. “As a result, we made an exception to a rule that we have had in place since 2013, which prevents Chris from interviewing and covering his brother, and that rule remains in place today.”
The interviews between the brothers in the early days of the pandemic were mocked by detractors as an awkward comedy routine. The sets included a large cotton swab and brotherly banter that seemed to make light of the crisis emerging in the state.
The anchor, during one interview, heaped praise on his brother’s COVID response, saying he was “wowed by what you did. And, more importantly, I’m wowed by how you did it.”
The interviews are all the more controversial because, at the same time they were being filmed, the governor’s administration had been accused of underreporting 50 percent of COVID-19 deaths to avoid the political fallout from a March directive that sent patients to nursing homes. The administration said it did nothing wrong and was following federal “guidance.”
A U.S. attorney and the FBI have started a preliminary investigation into the governor’s team’s handling of providing data to state agencies. In the wake of Attorney General Leticia James’ damning report, the administration revealed that 15,000 long-term care residents died, a significant jump from the 8,500 previously recorded.
As we reported in last week’s article, “N.Y. GOVERNOR CUOMO: LIAR-IN-CHIEF, PART 2,” Melissa DeRosa, one of Cuomo’s top aides, seemed to confirm to other Democrats that Cuomo’s administration underreported the numbers because they were concerned former President Trump’s administration would use the figures against them. She said they “froze.”
Wemple, the Post reporter, seemed unforgiving after CNN’s explanation.
“You can’t nullify a rule when your star anchor’s brother is flying high, only to invoke it during times of scandal. You just can’t,” he wrote, after pointing out CNN reinstated the policy that the two will not continue their comedy routine.
In response to the attacks on his handling of the deadly nursing home debacle, on Sunday, Governor Cuomo said, “If anyone had the perfect answer to nursing home deaths, and if anyone tells you they do, they’re lying… Because people are going to die in nursing homes today. If you have the perfect answer, then why will people die in nursing homes in this state, and every other state, in this country?”
TRENDPOST: Journalism is dead in America and much of the world. As we reported in our Trends in the News broadcast, on 10 February, the Financial Times headline read:
Fox News plans to maintain centre-right slant
The article went on to quote Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who made it 100 percent clear it is not true journalism that drives Fox News, it is the bottom line.
The Financial Times quoted Murdoch, who stated,
“We will stick where we are and we think that is exactly right and is the best thing for business. We believe where we are targeted, to the centre-right, is exactly where we should be targeted.”
There it is: “the best thing for business” is their being “targeted, to the centre-right.”
Unlike the Trend Journal, where our motto is “Think for Yourself,” for Fox Corporation, it is not about journalism, not about reporting news, but playing to an audience.
As we reported last week, the networks targeted to the center-left, who loudly praised King Cuomo for his fighting the COVID War, promoting his book deal and celebrating his Emmy Award for his daily COVID briefings, had barely reported on the unfolding nursing home scandal. We wrote that transcripts found the words “nursing homes” and “Andrew Cuomo” were not uttered once on Thursday night during the primetime hours of 8 to 11 PM on CNN or MSNBC.