Did Cuomo prioritize own family for coronavirus testing?
Bill Platt, who lost sisters to the virus, and state Sen. Goerge Borrello join 'Fox & Friends First' with reactions to recent reports.
"CBS Evening News" only managed to find 20 seconds to report on the bombshell allegation that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., directed health officials to prioritize his family – including CNN host Chris Cuomo -- in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
"CBS This Morning" ignored the bombshell on Thursday despite rival morning shows on NBC and ABC finding time to cover it, so Media Research Center analyst Nicholas Fondacaro monitored the nightly newscasts on all three networks to see if the pattern would continue.
"CBS finally discovered how the corrupt Governor allegedly secured priority testing for his family … during the ‘Evening News.’ But with zero teases throughout the program, fill-in anchor and chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett sprinted past the story in 20 seconds," Fondacaro wrote.
Indeed, Garrett was notably brief when covering the latest Cuomo scandal.
"Tonight, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is accused of giving family members and political allies special access to COVID tests back when testing was scarce. The Times-Union of Albany reports the governor's brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, his mother, and at least one sister were tested by health officials. The governor's office denied they received special treatment," Garrett said before moving on.
CNN GOES 24 HOURS WITHOUT MENTIONING LATEST CUOMO BOMBSHELL IMPLICATING NETWORK'S STAR ANCHOR
The Albany-based Times Union newspaper reported Wednesday that "high-level members" of New York's Department of Health were directed to "conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor's relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration."
"Members of Cuomo's family including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters were also tested by top health department officials — some several times, the sources said," according to the Times Union.
The "Cuomo Prime Time" anchor was diagnosed with coronavirus on March 31. As the paper noted, the diagnosis came when many members of the public were struggling to obtain coronavirus tests.
But CBS isn’t the only network that has downplayed the alleged scandal.
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NBC covered it on "Today" but skipped it on "Nightly News," while ABC’s "World News Tonight" only covered it for 32 seconds, according to the MRC.
Meanwhile, CNN went a full 24 hours without even mentioning the report that the network’s 9 p.m. ET host received special access to coronavirus tests because of his powerful brother.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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