Bloomberg columnist rips media for being 'conned' by Cuomo: Shame on journalists who 'couldn't stop swooning'

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Media gushed over Cuomo for handling of COVID-19

Fox News contributor Kimberly Strassel reacts to press coverage of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus response, which is under fire following a scathing report on the state's nursing home policy.

Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake blasted members of the mainstream media who "couldn't stop swooning" over New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., amid his nursing home scandal. 

Throughout much of the pandemic, Cuomo benefited from glowing media coverage over his response to the coronavirus outbreak despite the growing controversy surrounding his ill-fated nursing home policy last spring. The policy required assisted living facilities to accept COVID-positive patients in order to not overcrowd hospitals, which for months received little to no scrutiny. 

FLASHBACK: MEDIA FAWNED OVER CUOMO'S 'LEADERSHIP' DURING COVID AS NY NURSING HOME SCANDAL BREWED

"I think it’s safe to say at this point that @andrewcuomo conned the national media on his COVID leadership," Lake tweeted on Friday. "He made a horrendous decision on nursing homes and then covered it up on the death counts. Shame on him."

"But also shame on the journalists who couldn’t stop swooning," Lake added. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the state Department of Health may have underreported coronavirus deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent, according to a report released Thursday. 

While it was previously speculated that the Cuomo administration was undercounting COVID nursing home deaths, the media spent much of its time praising the governor's "leadership," juxtaposing his performance at his daily press briefings to President Trump's. 

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Cuomo's biggest cheerleader was his little brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, who routinely invited the governor onto this show to goof around and tease each other rather than pressing the top Democrat about his role in the nursing home deaths. 

"I hope you are able to appreciate what you did in your state and what it means for the rest of the country now. I'm wowed by what you did, and more importantly, I'm wowed by how you did it," Chris Cuomo told the governor last year.

The CNN anchor admitted to viewers regarding coverage of his brother, "Of course, I'm not objective."