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NEW YORK (AP) – Some TV shows age much better than others.
For CNN, the prime-time banter last spring between Chris Cuomo and his older brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, look worse in hindsight, with the governor’s administration questioned about its role in failing to disclose the actual number of COVID-19 nursing homes of the dead.
CNN is covering this story, but not on Chris Cuomo’s show. The network said it reinstated the ban on Cuomo interviewing or telling stories about her brother which she temporarily lifted last spring.
The brothers were both in the spotlight last March. Chris Cuomo caught COVID-19 and continued to anchor his show from his basement, while the governor treated New York’s hellish days as the country’s first coronavirus epicenter. Andrew Cuomo’s near-daily briefing was widely televised and, for some viewers, adopted as a counterpoint to those held by former President Donald Trump.
Nine times between March 19 and June 24, 2020, the governor appeared on his brother’s show. The brotherly and brotherly love between the two Queens Italians was fun but sometimes cheesy, like when Chris Cuomo mocked his brother’s big nose with a giant cotton swab, he said it would be necessary to give him a COVID-19 test.
“I found these interviews very entertaining, and maybe Chris could ask his brother questions that others can’t,” said Roy Gutterman, professor of media law at Syracuse University. “But from the start I thought it was totally inappropriate.
“This is journalism 101,” he says. “We tell our students that you shouldn’t question your family and friends.”
Politics avoids a conflict of interest – can you really expect one brother to ask tough questions of another? – or at the very least the appearance of one.
Via a spokesperson, CNN said the initial months of the pandemic were an extraordinary time.
“We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges millions of American families face was of great human interest,” CNN said. “As a result, we made an exception to a rule we’ve had in place since 2013 that prevents Chris from interviewing his brother, and that rule remains in effect today.”
Largely bubbling under the radar for months, questions about Andrew Cuomo have come to the fore in recent weeks. The New York attorney general released a report that the administration downplayed the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 by excluding those who died elsewhere, usually a hospital.
This was important because of a directive from the Cuomo administration in March that nursing homes should not deny admission or readmission to a patient because he or she had COVID-19. The policy was canceled two months later.
Keeping the real number of nursing home residents who have died hidden would theoretically deflect all blame for a bad policy choice. The governor accused staff entering nursing homes of spreading the virus to the vulnerable population, and not patients brought in with COVID-19. He said it would be discriminatory not to let these patients enter nursing homes.
Last week it was revealed that an assistant to Andrew Cuomo told lawmakers in New York that the true picture of the deaths in retirement homes had not been revealed for fear it would be used against the governor in an investigation launched by Trump’s Justice Department.
The last time the governor appeared on his brother’s show in June, Chris Cuomo asked him, “Retirement homes. People died there. They didn’t have to. It was poorly managed. And the operators have received immunity. What do you have to say about this? “
The governor replied that some of his brother’s words were incorrect. “But it’s OK,” he said. “It’s your show. You say what you mean.
He went on to say it was a tragic situation “and we have to figure out how to do better next time.”
CNN has covered the most recent developments on several occasions outside of Chris Cuomo’s show, including at least 24 times just last week. Two notable examples were a detailed Brianna Keilar report on January 29. and Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. Both presenters said they asked Andrew Cuomo to appear on their show and were turned down – dozens of times, in Tapper’s case.
The governor “made a bad decision that may have cost lives and then his administration withheld this data from the public,” Tapper said.
Although Chris Cuomo, following his network’s policy, did not address the latest stories, the game with his brother came just before the election last October during a heated exchange on his show with the spokesperson. of the Trump campaign, Tim Murtaugh.
Murtaugh criticized Cuomo for asking “fair questions” about whether the Trump administration is taking COVID-19 seriously and referred to the giant swab.
“Does that sound like a few guys who took it seriously?” he said. “You had your brother for the Cuomo Brothers Comedy Hour.”
“Yes, I did,” replied Chris Cuomo. “It was very funny.”
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Associated Press correspondent Marina Villeneuve in Albany, NY and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
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