NEW YORK (AP) – Some television shows age much better than others.
To CNN, last spring’s prime-time banter between Chris Cuomo and his older brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, looks worse in hindsight as the Governor’s government is questioned about its role in not disclosing the actual number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths
CNN covers that story, but not on Chris Cuomo’s show. The network said it had reinstated a ban on interviewing Cuomo or telling stories about his brother, which was temporarily lifted last spring.
Last March, the brothers were both in the spotlight. Chris Cuomo caught up with COVID-19 and continued to anchor his show from his basement, while the governor treated New York’s hellish days as the nation’s early coronavirus epicenter. Andrew Cuomo’s near-daily briefing was broadcast widely and, for some viewers, embraced as a counterpoint to former President Donald Trump’s briefing.
Nine times between March 19 and June 24, 2020, the Governor appeared on his brother’s show. The talking and brotherly love between the two Italians from Queens was fun, but at times cheesylike when Chris Cuomo mocked his brother’s big nose with a giant cotton swab that he said 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 other people can’t,” said Roy Gutterman, a professor of media law at Syracuse University. ‘But from the very beginning I thought it was very inappropriate.
“It’s Journalism 101,” he said. “We tell our students not to interview your family and friends.”
The policy avoids a conflict of interest – can one brother really be expected to ask the other tough questions? – or at least the appearance of one.
CNN said through a spokeswoman that the first months of the pandemic were an extraordinary time.
“We felt that Chris speaking to his brother about the challenges that millions of American families were facing were of great human importance,” CNN said. “As a result, we’ve made an exception to a rule we’ve had since 2013 that prevents Chris from interviewing his brother, and that rule remains in effect.”
Questions about Andrew Cuomo, which have largely been bubbling under the radar for months, have come to the fore in recent weeks. The New York Attorney General released a report stating that the administration has minimized the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 by excluding those who died elsewhere, usually a hospital.
This was significant because of a March Cuomo administration guideline that nursing homes should not deny a patient’s admission or readmission because they had COVID-19. The policy was canceled two months later.
Hiding the actual number of nursing home residents who died would, in theory, avert any blame for a bad policy choice. The governor has blamed staff entering nursing homes for spreading the virus among the vulnerable population, not the patients brought in with COVID-19. He has said it would be discriminatory not to let those patients into nursing homes.
Last week, it was revealed that an Andrew Cuomo assistant told New York lawmakers that the true picture of the nursing home deaths was not revealed for fear it would be used against the governor during an investigation launched by the Justice Department. Trump.
The last time the governor appeared on his brother’s show in June, Chris Cuomo asked him, “Nursing homes. People died there. They didn’t have to. It was mismanaged. And the operators have been given immunity. What do you have to say about that? “
The governor replied that some of what his brother said was incorrect. “But that’s okay,” he said. ‘It’s your show. You say whatever you want. “
He went on to say it was a tragic situation “and we need to find out how we can do better next time.”
CNN has discussed the most recent developments outside of Chris Cuomo’s show several times, including at least 24 times last week alone. Two notable examples were a thorough report by Brianna Keilar on January 29 and Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. Both anchors 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 government hid that data from the public,” Tapper said.
While Chris Cuomo, echoing his network’s policies, has not covered the latest stories, the byplay with his brother did come up just before the election last October in a heated exchange of views on his show with Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.
Murtaugh criticized Cuomo for asking “ self-righteous questions ” about whether the Trump administration was taking COVID-19 seriously, referring to the giant smear test.
“Does this look like some guys taking it seriously?” he said. “You brought your brother to the Cuomo Brothers Comedy Hour.”
“Yes I did,” replied Chris Cuomo. “It was so funny.”
Associated Press correspondent Marina Villeneuve in Albany, NY and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.