Cuomo Sapiens Endangered
NY Governor Cuomo's reputation undeservedly soared as a favorite anti-Trump: competent, truthful, ethical. The media did not examine his actions because doing so was bad for their Team
Well known Trump opponent and governor of New York Andrew Cuomo got an easy ride from the media. They did not dig into his woeful decisions or leadership style because doing so would be bad for their Team. The media interrogation only started with the 2020 election safely secured. Read on for the full story
The pre-election Narrative
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is an amazing leader. At a time of deep crisis he emanates compassion and competence. Some leaders are playing the blame game or claiming Covid will disappear.
Not Andrew. He is led by science. He follows the facts. He tells the truth. He is ethical.
Media and celebrities love him. Trevor Noah says he is a Cuomosexual. So does Ellen DeGeneres. Robert De Niro says he is behaving like a president. Noted political pundit Jimmy Fallon lauded Cuomo: “On behalf of New Yorkers and bigger than that the world, thank you for your leadership…he’s smart, you were honest…you came across so honest.”
May 2020: Governor Cuomo receives global praise from media and celebrities for his leadership early in the Covid crisis
He literally wrote the book on leadership in Covid, netting a reported seven-figure advance in the process. And he won an Emmy for his daily briefings.
He also has an open feud with Trump, at one point saying Trump would not be physically safe in New York City, which is totally unrelated to how the media treats him.
Cracks in the narrative
Nobody’s perfect, but Cuomo was pretty damn close. He made a couple mistakes here and there, but he got the benefit of the doubt - as any political slugger who accuses Trump of actively allowing Covid to ‘ambush’ NY should.
So what were those mistakes?
When Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept Covid positive patients in March 2020 it raised a few eyebrows. After all, weren’t we shutting down economic activity so that vulnerable people would not be exposed to the virus? What is the point of closing businesses, schools, churches, shops, and restaurants if you then take the virus and mainline it into nursing homes? But Cuomo was such a Serious Leader that he got a pass.
When Cuomo did not fill hospital beds before sending over 6,000 Covid positive patients back into nursing homes, that was a slip in his judgement. Blaming nursing home staff and visitors for bringing Covid into the homes rather than admitting his policy directly caused it was just part of his tough guy persona.
When Cuomo was starting to get criticism for the nursing home order so then manipulated death data and covered it up, that was a totally out of character one off. He lied and said his order was in line with the CDC. And it was fine anyway, because he only did it so that Trump could not use it as a political weapon.
When Cuomo led New York to the second worse per capita death rate in the country, that was bad luck.
When the New York economy declined 4% more than the US overall in Q1-Q2 2020, and then recovered 5% less in Q2-Q3, he was part of the #resistance so performance did not matter.
When Cuomo urged vaccine skepticism in October 2020, that was fair game, because he said it to make Trump sound bad. “I think it’s going to be a very skeptical American public about taking the vaccine, and they should be” - because the FDA and CDC have no credibility when Trump is the president.
When 9 top state scientific advisors left due to the governor’s mishandling of the pandemic and bull-headed contempt for scientific advice there was nothing to see there. Or when he stated: “When I say ‘experts’ in air quotes, it sounds like I’m saying I don’t really trust the experts. Because I don’t.”
When Cuomo tried to appoint a friendly judge to lead the investigation into nursing home data, that was forgivable. It definitely was not like the time he steered an ethics commission away from his office, or covered up the Hurricane Sandy findings that implicated him.
As you can see, before the sexual harassment allegations (six and counting - by the time you read this there could well be more so here is a handy link), there was absolutely no ground to believe that Cuomo was an incompetent bully. He was a crusader for the light, fighting the dark forces of lies, anti-science, corruption etc etc.
The post-election narrative
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is a terrible leader. At a time of deep crisis, he ignored experts, made bad decisions, tried to hide them, played political games, and possibly harassed employees.
Everyone agrees. New York’s Democratic Senators have abandoned him. Biden is non-committal. AOC is tweeting about him, and not in a good way. New York’s attorney general is investigating him. Even former Cuomosexual Trevor Noah has turned on him.
The only surprise at this stage is that just six accusers have come forward, and that Cuomo did not just pack Covid patients into buses and send them across the state lines into Pennsylvania to be someone else’s statistic.
But Seriously…
It is a striking fact of the current media landscape that this politician, with his history of power politics, was given such adulation in the run up to 2020’s election. Hailed as a hero even as he made bad decisions that led his state to arguably the worst Covid outcome in the US, then covered it up, then lied about it, and then had the gall to write a book about leadership. This record was plain for all to see and yet not really covered until late 2020 and early 2021. In other words, not until after the election. The New York Times article, on the 9 departed scientific advisors for example, was published in February 2021 even though the exodus of scientists occurred in the middle of 2020.
Yes it’s awful that Cuomo withheld facts about nursing homes because they showed his immense incompetence clear as day, and he feared this fact would be used against him by his opponents. But he was aided by a pliant media who asked no questions for the same reason - namely that finding the truth in this case and publishing it would be embarrassing for their Team.
That is the situation we face. The institutions whose one job is to let ordinary people know what powerful people are doing is only interested if it fits the preferred narrative. They act as either cloaks or spotlights as it suits the narrative.
A powerful politician will do whatever they can get away with. If their public perception, and chances for re-election, are totally unconnected to the reality of their performance, then they will stop caring about their performance, even in the middle of a pandemic, and go off gallivanting on comedy shows and writing books on leadership.
Democracy really does die in darkness. When democracy is a team sport and the media is on a team, bad things will follow.
What is the cost of this lack of media scrutiny? How many people died, how much money did NY waste that now is being bailed out because the media did not do their job? Cuomo had a simple job to do. Trade off economic activity vs death. He gave his state both barrels by crippling economic activity while also not shielding vulnerable people from the virus.
He cleverly hid that incompetence by being anti-Trump and having news conferences where he appear truthful and statesmanlike, while in reality he was everything he claimed to oppose: a liar, a megalomaniac, a science-denier, a harasser. A grade A scumbag.
In an unrelated note, trust in the print news is 24%, and television media news is 18%.
See here for previous coverage of media hiding actions by powerful politicians on their side.