CNN and MSNBC Provide Little Coverage of Bombshell Report on Cuomo Nursing Home Cover Up

Rudy TakalaMay 6th, 2021, 9:19 am
 
Andrew Cuomo

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

CNN and MSNBC have provided scant coverage of last week’s New York Times bombshell on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) nursing home scandal, which reported that the effort to hide the pandemic death toll in nursing homes was far greater than previously known.

The Times‘ April 28 report alleged Cuomo’s senior aides “engaged in a sustained effort to prevent the state’s own health officials” from sharing accurate data last year about deceased nursing home patients with the public or with state lawmakers. A January report by Attorney General Letitia James (D) had previously concluded that deaths had been undercounted by as much as 50 percent, which has sparked an investigation by the FBI and U.S. attorney in Brooklyn.

However, the report about New York’s governor — who was viewed as a top Democratic contender for the presidency last year — prompted little interest from MSNBC. The network provided three minutes of coverage during a Thursday segment of Morning Joe, a fact first pointed out by Steve Krakauer and confirmed by a review of the network by Mediaite.

CNN, where Cuomo’s brother Chris Cuomo is employed as an evening anchor, dedicated one exclusive segment to the report. According to a Mediaite review, the network provided a mention of the scandal on a broader level on Wednesday morning, when host Brianna Keilar noted Cuomo maintained he had “done nothing wrong” and spent four minutes speaking with S.E. Cupp, who, the chyron noted, argued Cuomo “mirrored” former President Donald Trump by “gaslighting” over the state’s probe into his conduct. She dedicated another four minutes to interviewing an author of the Times report, David Goodman, early Thursday morning.

Fox News mentioned the story roughly 20 times in the week following its debut. Host Neil Cavuto won his network’s race to cover the issue first, just hours after its publication, followed the same evening by anchor Bret Baier.

Critics, especially those on CNN and MSNBC, have nonetheless frequently groused this year about perceived omissions in Fox’s coverage. CNN’s Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy accused Fox of “barely covering” former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s trial last month, despite  the network mentioning his name roughly 600 times in April alone. More glaringly, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow mistakenly accused Fox in February of failing to air former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect an interview that Keilar hosted on the New York Times report.

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