Networks Skip Gov. Andrew Cuomo Selling 945 Books -- and the $700,000 Advance

October 27th, 2014 7:26 AM

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo popped up on national TV Friday in coverage of the Ebola case in New York city, including a cozy CNN morning interview on New Day (this time, not with his anchorman brother Chris, although the journalist took the time to insist "a super noogie on him.") But the networks weren’t about to report that the potential 2016 presidential contender is bombing on the book shelves.

Daniel Halper of The Weekly Standard passed along that New York Times political reporter Amy Chozick (assigned normally to the all-but-official Hillary Clinton campaign) tweeted out that the governor’s new book All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and in Life was basically dead on arrival:

Halper noted that The New York Times reported in May that “Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is set to earn more than $700,000 for a memoir that will be published this summer, according to a new ethics filing.” He'd already reported a payment of almost $200,000 on his tax returns. The publisher is Harper Collins, an imprint owned by Rupert Murdoch. With sales this low, it starts looking like philanthropy rather than business.

Cuomo tried to claim the low book sales are because he hasn't had time to promote it, but Charlie Rose at CBS This Morning gushed all over him in a book interview on October 14. CBS This Morning also made time for this less-than-national story last Tuesday morning:

The Wall Street Journal says New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a design competition to overhaul New York City's airports. Vice President Joe Biden joined Cuomo for Monday's announcement. LaGuardia and Kennedy airports rank among the worst in the United States for design and cleanliness.

Colin Campbell at Business Insider reported the governor’s brother at CNN is one of the few journalists he trusts to treat him er, fairly. The rest are ideologues:

"And a special thank-you to my brother, Chris, who has great advice and laughs for his older brother, and who showed me that there is at least one reporter whom I can trust," Cuomo wrote in the final, acknowledgments section of his book.

Cuomo's rocky relationship with the press apparently began back when he was working with his father, ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo (D), decades ago. Still, in the book, Cuomo contrasted the modern media landscape unfavorably with a reporter and a columnist who worked with his father early on his political career.

"Their articles often forced the government to remedy whatever problem they focused on — a far cry from some of today’s 'news outlets,' which are just proxies for knee-jerk ideological perspectives," he wrote.

Later, Cuomo panned "media outlets, which have become pitchmen for ideologies, creating their own echo chamber ... for those with similar political positions ... The competition places a premium on speed, not accuracy."