McEnany: No one wants to watch CNN’s Cuomo after pandemic 'comedy hour' with brother
Kayleigh McEnany discusses Biden’s upcoming press conference, VP Harris being selected to deal with the border crisis and Chris Cuomo allegedly using his brother’s position to get prioritized a COVID test.
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo reportedly received prioritized coronavirus testing when his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, ordered health department officials to give special treatment to his relatives and "influential people with ties to the administration."
The development raises questions about whether anyone else at the liberal network gained access to testing through their star anchor's connections, but the network has refused to answer on the matter.
The Albany-based Times Union newspaper reported the bombshell on Wednesday and CNN offered a widely panned statement that indicated the network would be OK if the embattled governor helped out colleagues of his little brother, too.
A CNN spokesperson told the Washington Post, "It is not surprising in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would."
Chris Cuomo has worked at CNN since 2013 and the outgoing anchor has plenty of friends who work at the network. His close relationship with Don Lemon is visible on a nightly basis during their on-air handoff, and he co-hosted "New Day" alongside Alisyn Camerota for years before moving to the network’s primetime lineup.
As CNN indicated that "any human" would have turned to anyone possible for "advice and assistance" during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, it begs the question if any of Chris Cuomo’s colleagues asked him if his brother -- the governor of New York -- could help out.
At the time, the vast majority of Americans faced an extremely difficult time finding coronavirus tests, regardless of symptoms.
CNN did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment on whether or not other CNN staffers received special access to coronavirus tests because of their proximity to the governor’s little brother.
It is unclear if "influential people with ties to the administration" include other CNN staffers. The "Cuomo Prime Time" namesake isn’t the only CNN employee with ties to the governor. CNN executive vice president and chief marketing officer Allison Gollust was Cuomo’s communications director before joining the cable news network.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald was among the many people who took issue with CNN’s defense of Cuomo’s alleged special treatment, writing that the initial statement provided "is damaging to CNN’s brand" in a scathing newsletter.
"He was the beneficiary of exactly the kind of abuse of power that journalists (at least in theory) exist to expose," Greenwald wrote. "And yet CNN — which has spent the year relentlessly shaming anyone who is even slightly off-key when it comes to COVID — is defending and even glorifying what their host did in corruptly obtaining for himself medical care unavailable to the broader public.’
Greenwald called CNN’s statement about the situation "grotesque" and said the network is justifying "corrupt, unethical or amoral" behavior.
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"CNN’s attempt to cast this as an invasion of Cuomo’s private medical decisions is insultingly dishonest. Nobody cares about this because they are interested in what took place in the intimate setting between Cuomo and his physician," Greenwald wrote. "The issue — obviously — is that this person who CNN presents as a ‘journalist’ clearly abused his influence and power, along with his brother, by using state resources for his own benefit and jumping in front of a line that almost certainly deprived people more in need of getting COVID tests at a time when they were scarce. The issue is not Cuomo’s medical privacy but the abuse of power in which he participated with his brother, the Governor of New York."
Greenwald continued: "How can a news outlet credibly claim to denounce and expose abuse of power by political officials when they defend the participation in such corruption by their own on-air talent? CNN is telling the public that they see nothing wrong with their rich and well-connected anchors exploiting public resources or connections to powerful politicians to corruptly obtain medical treatment at the expense of everyone else. That is as grotesque as it is damaging to CNN’s brand."
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