In a Monday press conference, corrupt New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) spun a web of lies and misinformation about his administration’s cover-up of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19. Blaming everyone from former President Trump to nursing home staff, Cuomo refused to take responsibility as he openly lied about his administration’s actions. Despite how blatant and easily disprovable his claims were, ABC and CBS refused to give him the Trump treatment and fact-check anything he said.
Instead, we got correspondents like Carter Evans on the CBS Evening News, who worked to prop up Cuomo’s false claims. “New York Governor Cuomo defended himself against charges that the state underreported the death toll from nursing homes early in the pandemic, but then tried to cover it up,” Evans reported.
He followed that up with his soundbite of the Governor: “I want everyone to know, everything was done. Everything was done by the best minds in the best interest.”
What Evans claimed were mere “charges” of a cover-up were, in fact, admitted to by one of Cuomo’s aides. He refused to mention that Secretary Melissa DeRosa was caught on audio admitting to state Democratic lawmakers they tried to cover-up the numbers to hide them from federal investigators.
Over on ABC’s World News Tonight, weekend Good Morning America co-anchor Eva Pilgrim parroted Cuomo’s suggestion that the numbers were only “delayed.”
“It comes as New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo is addressing his handling of the numbers of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, after his office conceded that it delayed turning them over to state lawmakers,” she lied to her viewers.
She also used soundbites to push Cuomo’s false claims of “disinformation” being propagated about his administration (Click “expand”):
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The void we created allowed disinformation and that created more anxieties for the families of loved ones.
PILGRIM: Families have wondered whether their loved ones could have been saved. Today, Cuomo defending his record.
CUOMO: The truth is, everybody did everything they could.
What misinformation? The thing his aide admitted they did? At least Anna Thompson reported that much on NBC Nightly News. Though in a rather weak way.
“Last week revelations that one of the Governor's top aides told Democratic state lawmakers nursing home data was delayed. Saying ‘we froze” fearing the numbers would ‘used against us’ by the Trump administration,” she said.
Unfortunately, Thompson didn’t push back on Cuomo’s assertion that his administration informed state lawmakers their demand for numbers was being put on the back burner as they dealt with the Department of Justice.
It was an outlandish claim that was easily disproven by how even Democratic lawmakers were describing the Governor’s actions as “criminal.” And on Fox News Channel’s Special Report, correspondent Bryan Llenas reported that Democratic state lawmaker Ron Kim was calling Cuomo out for lying during the press conference. Llenas reported: “DeRosa told them the reason the administration withheld the data was for political reasons.”
“That’s not what we heard. That’s not what she said. She even prefaced the whole thing by saying ‘I’m going to tell you the truth. This is a whole truth,’” Kim said in a soundbite. “He’s lying right now in today's press conference about sending notices to the Assembly and Senate that we knew the Department of Justice investigation. We were not informed.”
The networks also didn’t fact-check Cuomo’s ridiculous claim that COVID was only brought into nursing homes via facility staff and maintenance workers. Thanks to the Associated Press, we know 9,000 COIVD patients were sent back to their long-term care facilities, killing nearly 15,000.
This naked attempt to help a corrupt Democratic governor weather the storm was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Pacific Life on ABC and Liberty Mutual on CBS. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the terrible programing they fund. CBS Evening News has also asked people to text anchor Norah O’Donnell at this number: (202) 217-1107.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s World News Tonight
February 15, 2021
6:41:06 p.m. Eastern(…)
EVA PILGRIM: It comes as New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo is addressing his handling of the numbers of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, after his office conceded that it delayed turning them over to state lawmakers.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The void we created allowed disinformation and that created more anxieties for the families of loved ones.
PILGRIM: Families have wondered whether their loved ones could have been saved. Today, Cuomo defending his record.
CUOMO: The truth is, everybody did everything they could.
(…)
CBS Evening News
February 15, 2021
6:39:20 p.m. Eastern [25 seconds](…)
CARTER EVANS: Also tonight.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Not providing the information creates the void.
EVANS: New York Governor Cuomo defended himself against charges that the state underreported the death toll from nursing homes early in the pandemic, but then tried to cover it up.
CUOMO: I want everyone to know, everything was done. Everything was done by the best minds in the best interest.
(…)
