Calls grow for CNN to scrap 'insufferable' ‘Keeping Up With the Cuomos’ interviews
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CNN's fawning coverage of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by his little brother Chris Cuomo is getting ripped by critics left, right and center. It has become so embarrassing for CNN's reputation that even the liberal network’s own media critic had to include a brief mention of the latest ridiculed episode in his newsletter.
“Chris Cuomo's segments with his New York Governor brother Andrew are coming under more and more scrutiny, especially after Wednesday's giant test swab joke,” CNN’s in-house media pundit Brian Stelter wrote in Thursday evening’s edition of his “Reliable Sources” newsletter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CUOMO BROTHERS' JOKEY CNN INTERVIEW IGNORING NURSING HOME CONTROVERSY SPARKS OUTRAGE
The aforementioned segment aired on Wednesday night, when the “Cuomo Prime Time” namesake failed to address New York's growing nursing-home controversy in his latest interview with his brother, the Democratic governor of New York, and instead performed prop comedy with giant cotton swabs.
Andrew Cuomo – who his brother calls “Love Gov” – recently reversed a widely criticized March 25 order that forced nursing homes to accept patients who tested positive for coronavirus. Cuomo signed an executive order on May 11 that stopped hospitals from sending infected patients back to nursing homes and ramped up testing for staff, but only after thousands of lives had been lost.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOV. ANDREW CUOMO GETS A PASS FROM CNN ON NURSING HOME POLICY CONTROVERSY
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has been the leading voice calling for an investigation into the Democratic governor’s original March directive. Gov. Cuomo has been interviewed on CNN at least 20 times since March 8, with his younger brother conducting now 10 of them, but the governor has not been asked about his state's nursing home coronavirus guidelines during any of the appearances.
Stelter included a link to a piece written by Reason senior editor Robby Soave headlined, “Chris Cuomo's COVID-19 Interviews With Andrew Cuomo Are Disgraceful.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Soave wrote the CNN host’s “hardest-hitting question for his older brother was whether the COVID-19 testing swabs are too small for his gigantic nose.”
Indeed, the CNN host on Wednesday played a clip of his brother taking a coronavirus test where a nurse placed a cotton swab up his nostril and joked about the size of his sibling’s nose, complete with props.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Is it true that this was the swab that the nurse was actually using on you?" the primetime host asked his brother while holding an oversized cotton swab. The CNN host then quickly followed by presenting him an even larger cotton swab, asking his brother if that was the one the nurse used on him while the duo could barely contain their laughter.
At one point, the CNN host held the large mock COVID test swab and said, "So then this was the actual swab that was used to fit up that double-barreled shotgun that you have mounted on the front of your pretty face?"
“Chris Cuomo's employers have decided to let his bad family comedy routine play out night after night, as the brothers fake-argue about which one is mom's favorite, who would win in a fight, and where the tomato sauce recipe went,” Soave wrote. “Some viewers might appreciate an occasional light-hearted break from the constant stream of grim COVID-19 news, but this is getting ridiculous.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DAN GAINOR: ANDREW CUOMO AND BROTHER CHRIS MAKE A MOCKERY OF JOURNALISM, VIEWERS AND CNN
The bit sparked outrage on social media, with criticism ranging from the “comedy act is getting a little old” to labeling it “insufferable.”
ELISE STEFANIK ASKS FEDS TO INVESTIGATE CUOMO'S 'FAILED' NURSING HOME POLICY
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor called the skit “an embarrassment to what remains of professional journalism and a stain on the body politic,” while media website Mediaite labeled the Cuomo brothers their “media loser” of the day.
“The routine, the governor of one of the hardest hit states being interviewed by, and frequently joking around with, his own brother, is not a good one, for the network or the brothers,” Mediaite’s staff noted in its “Live From the Green Room" newsletter.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fourth Watch editor and former CNN staffer Steve Krakauer labeled it "Keeping Up With The Cuomos," and feels it needs a hiatus. He once defended the practice of a CNN host interviewing his brother as “a light, heartwarming moment” but feels circumstances have changed.
“Andrew Cuomo may give a good press conference, and he may have a small following on Twitter that love him (and call themselves Cuomosexuals...seriously) but the reality is he has presided over a true disaster in his state. It is a stain on our national media that they have been as subservient to him as they have,” Krakauer wrote. “Can we quit the comedy routine on ‘America's Most Trusted Name in News?’”
“Is it really appropriate for Cuomo to send his staff to the drug store to buy some props during this crisis, so he and his brother can yuck it up instead of asking a single question even approaching journalism?”