Could the love affair that the mainstream media has been having for New York governor Andrew Cuomo finally be diminishing? One sign of that could be a new skepticism creeping into the stories about how Cuomo has handled the coronavirus crises with his disastrous decision to send COVID-19 patients into nursing homes. An example of how the bloom might be off the rose for Cuomo could be seen in the title of Friday's Politico article by Anna Gronewold and Erin Durkin, "Cuomo’s coronavirus halo begins to fade."
Two and a half months into the crisis, Cuomo’s take-charge attitude has begun to soften. The governor, who gained legions of fans for his briefings that blended an authoritative tone with a personal touch, is increasingly on the defensive — and casting blame on the federal government and its guidance.
“Who should have known?” he said at a press conference last week, explaining that the state could have better controlled the virus if someone told him it had spread to Europe. “It’s above my paygrade as the governor of one state, but what federal agency? What international health organization? I don’t know. It’s not what I do; it’s not my responsibility. But someone has to answer that question.”
Gone is the split-screen Cuomo often shared with President Donald Trump early in the outbreak. Now, Cuomo is still briefing daily, though in not as big of a national spotlight, while Trump has shied away from the podium.
The limelight's fade coincides with mounting scrutiny of New York state's response to the crisis, particularly in nursing homes, where more than 5,700 residents have died from Covid-19. A growing body of research is finding that earlier shutdown measures could have averted many of the state's more than 23,700 fatalities.
...The governor has drawn particular criticism for his policy of sending recovering Covid-19 patients to nursing homes, which he effectively reversed this month — even as he denied the change was a reversal at all. State officials say the nature of the fast-moving and unprecedented crisis forced the state to follow national guidance on the issue.
Contrast that new skeptical attitude towards Cuomo with the idolatry displayed by much of the media almost worshiping the New York governor in April as a "kind of acting President."
During an interview with the Governor on the March 27 edition of NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt gushed: “You spoke to national guard troops today in a stirring speech that, if I wasn’t listening carefully, I’d thought were sending soldiers off to war.”
It appears that the April media gushing over Cuomo might finally be slowing down as reflected by the Politico article revealing Cuomo as something less than a savior:
These days, fervid marriage proposals and calls for Cuomo to run for president in the live comments during his briefings are more evenly intermixed with the Twitter users blasting him for the deaths of their relatives in nursing homes or continued unemployment as the state slowly reopens.
