@NYGovCuomo thinks he can survive the bombshell report about his sexual misconduct from his own state AG because lots of corporate media outlets have worked hard to deceive the country into thinking Gov. Cuomo is a hero.
Don’t remember? Read on ⤵️
The only place to start is with @CNN, where Cuomo’s brother @ChrisCuomo works.
I’m sure you all remember what the love fest looked like back then. This is meant to be straight news coverage!
And of course it wasn’t just the network. There were plenty of their main voices who chimed in.
Perhaps the staunchest supporter proved to be @ananavarro, even after the sexual harassment allegations surfaced.
This quote from @ChrisCillizza always gets me, and I couldn’t not include it here.
Is it any wonder that one of @NYGovCuomo’s biggest cheerleaders throughout the process was his brother @ChrisCuomo?
The “Luv Guv dishing the real 24/7” quote didn’t quite hold up.
But CNN was far from alone among the broadcast networks. @MSNBC worked overtime to get Cuomo on and carried water for him even well after some of his scandals had started to come to light.
And like CNN, their leading voices were all-aboard the Cuomo train.
Here’s @JoyAnnReid providing a timely reminder that worshipping politicians is always bad but is particularly harmful when you’re meant to cover them.
It wasn’t just broadcast. Here’s a quote that’s always stuck with me from @washingtonpost writers @sarahellison and @bterris (straight news, not an opinion, mind you) that Cuomo is “the strongman who can admit he’s wrong.”
Some of the coverage from @nytimes about Cuomo was commendable and has held up well in retrospect.
Some of it has…well, not so much.
Here’s @NPR doing much of the same: applauding @NYGovCuomo’s personality traits.
NPR, do you still stand by Cuomo as someone “listening to the experts and sticking to the facts” as he rejects calls to step down?
A lot of what was written was too generous to even pass for PR. I mean it was just one long vanity project by Cuomo, with the press doing his bidding at seemingly every turn.
I’m running out of words to describe how over the top the media adulation of @NYGovCuomo was but I haven’t run out of outlets, unfortunately. @DEADLINE, @enews, @TODAYshow
Could anyone forget the evolution of the “Cuomosexuals” during all this? @latimes did a whole piece about it.
Is it any wonder that media outlets reporting on how the Governor had inspired a new sexuality were willing to look away from his scandals?
There are a bunch of others like this that I don’t have space to feature on their own or the mental strength remaining to analyze, including:
Some outlets didn’t take the bait. There was great coverage from a number of publications, including @NewYorker and @propublica, as well as both conservative outlets like NY Post and @WSJ, and local outlets (@NY1 and many others).
The real story was out there all along.
Despite that, plenty of opinion writers went to great lengths to make Cuomo into a hero that he wasn’t. Here’s thread favorite @JRubinBlogger.
I’m not sure that “empathy” is the word that comes to mind in all this, @maureendowd.
The entire Cuomo experience was a pretty good litmus test, though, of the outlets and voices who simply weren’t discriminating enough in their coverage of a public figure.
And speaking of, the funny people were, well, not exactly speaking truth to power. There were others but the worst of it was really led by @TheDailyShow.
I mean, based on what @NYGovCuomo has said about sexual harassment in the workplace, I don’t see how he can do anything but resign.
But what we can’t lose in all of this is that @NYGovCuomo is also responsible for the deaths of thousands of seniors across New York because of his disastrous handling of coronavirus. He’s escaped accountability to date.
Hopefully this development will bring attention to that.
The most important role of the press is to serve as a watchdog over people and institutions in power. The corporate press came down with a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to @NYGovCuomo.
The results shouldn’t shock us.
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8 years after I said I would, 2 years after a brain tumor diagnosis, and 1 year after finishing chemo & radiation, I’m finally running the Army 10-miler in a couple weeks, and raising money for a good cause.
I hope you’ll check out the details in the 🧵thread🧵 below. 👇
The 10-miler is, as the name implies, a 10 mile road race in Washington, D.C. It’s October 13th, so, soon!
If you’d like to donate (100% of donations go to charity, more on that below). The link is here:
I’m running (okay, slowly jogging) it to raise money for Undue Medical Debt, a really good charity that helps people who’re saddled with debt from the medical care they need (or needed).
It’s genuinely unclear who is executing the responsibilities of the leader of the free world and the media — providers of transparency, beacons of integrity — couldn’t seem to care less.
That there could be any question more important for anyone in the media to ask than “who is in charge of the country, right now, at this moment?” defies all logic.
Look, I know there’s bigger news today, but with Biden’s “black jobs” quip on Friday, I’ve gotta revisit the media meltdown on the term, as stupid as it is.
Do you remember how insulted & offended the press were when Trump said “black jobs”?
I’ve got screenshots. ⤵️
Some quick context: Biden in a speech on Friday, referred to jobs as “black jobs,” as in held by black folks.
If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because Trump said it at his debate with Biden a couple months ago.
The media went ballistic.
Just look at the indignation here from @axios when Trump used the phrase.
“Reality check.” I mean, cmon!
And so now what, Axios? Is Biden suddenly a monster, too?
I was struck by the number of dubious statements and flat-out lies at the DNC.
It appears the mainstream media isn’t much interested in them, amid their jubilant, joy-full coverage. So I decided to do some fact-checking, focused on Biden’s speech.
There’s a lot. ⤵️
1. The first thing that jumped out to me was Trump’s alleged “very fine people on both sides” description of Charlottesville.
Haven’t we been over this, time and again? The context makes clear Trump didn’t mean the neo-Nazis. Even @snopes admitted it!
Yet Biden trotted it out.
2. Biden claimed he and his admin “demonizes no one.”
What, then, about Biden’s remarks about Trump supporters? That they are “determined to destroy democracy,” practitioners of “semi-fascism,” and “a threat to the very soul of this nation.”
The media haven’t been interested in providing voters with much of a picture of Kamala Harris beyond “vibes.”
So I did the work for them and went back through what she’s actually said and done on policy and beyond.
It isn’t a pretty picture. Follow along ⤵️
There’s nowhere better to start than on immigration. Back in 2020, Harris was among the Dem candidates who supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings.
Now @politico claims she “promised to go tough on border security.”
Color me skeptical.
Especially considering she supported eliminating ICE, tried to stop production on the border wall, and otherwise unwind the Trump policies that actually reduced illegal immigration.