After intentionally hiding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) latest COVID scandal from their viewers during Thursday’s This Morning, CBS finally discovered how the corrupt Governor allegedly secured priority testing for his family (including his brother Chris “Fredo” Cuomo of CNN) during the Evening News. But with zero teases throughout the program, fill-in anchor and chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett sprinted past the story in 20 seconds.
With no mention of the story during the opening teases or pre-commercial hype, Garrett came back from an ad break to quickly unload the story and run:
Tonight, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is accused of giving family members and political allies special access to COVID tests back when testing was scarce. The Times-Union of Albany reports the governor's brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, his mother, and at least one sister were tested by health officials. The governor's office denied they received special treatment.
In NewsBusters’ initial reporting, while CBS ignored the story, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today show both dedicated full reports Thursday morning.
But come Thursday night, NBC Nightly News dropped the story entirely as they hyped the running of the Olympic torch. Of course, they prioritized their contractual monopoly on Olympic broadcasting. They also featured political director Chuck Todd gushing about how President Biden didn’t have to field questions about the pandemic at a press conference because the liberal media were confident in him.
ABC’s World News Tonight wasn’t much better. Anchor David Muir and correspondent Victor Oquendo crammed the story into the last 32 seconds of a much larger report on the coronavirus pandemic, largely boasting about Biden doubling his goal for vaccinations.
“The other pandemic-related headline, accusations involving New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, that he gave members of his own family and other influential people priority for COVID testing in the early days of the pandemic. His response,” Muir weakly questioned.
Oquendo briefly gave a rundown of the allegations against the Governor:
David, the embattled Governor facing questions after reports that he gave his family and others access to government-run sites – government-run tests at a time when the average person really couldn't get a test. The Governor saying, in response, that at that time, they were focused on contact tracing and stopping the spread of the virus.
In contrast to these networks that wanted to get past the scandal as quickly as possible while doing the bare minimum to say they covered it, Fox News Channel correspondent Bryan Llenas highlighted one New York woman on Special Report whose mother perished in a nursing home while Cuomo was giving his mother special treatment.
VIVIAN RIVERA ZAYAS (Voices for Seniors): It’s shocking. I had a Matilda [Cuomo] I had a Matilda that I would protect, that I watched over, that I was an advocate for her. And he protected his Matilda and sacrificed mine.
The network refusal to seriously dive into Governor Cuomo’s latest COVID scandal was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from TD Ameritrade on ABC, Ancestry on CBS, and Liberty Mutual on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
March 25, 2021
6:49:55 p.m. EasternMAJOR GARRETT: Tonight, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is accused of giving family members and political allies special access to COVID tests back when testing was scarce. The Times-Union of Albany reports the governor's brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, his mother, and at least one sister were tested by health officials. The governor's office denied they received special treatment.
ABC’s World News Tonight
March 25, 2021
6:45:14 p.m. Eastern(…)
DAVID MUIR: The other pandemic-related headline, accusations involving New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, that he gave members of his own family and other influential people priority for COVID testing in the early days of the pandemic. His response?
VICTOR OQUENDO: David, the embattled Governor facing questions after reports that he gave his family and others access to government-run sites – government-run tests at a time when the average person really couldn't get a test. The Governor saying, in response, that at that time, they were focused on contact tracing and stopping the spread of the virus.
