Media top headlines August 11
In media news today, the media leads a charge to smear a Rockies fan they falsely accused of using a racial slur, CNN's Chris Cuomo reportedly urged his brother Andrew to resign, and Stephen Colbert grills Brian Stelter on CNN's Cuomo scandal
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation, effective in two weeks, appeared to be the final nail in the coffin for the hero worship he had previously enjoyed from the mainstream media.
Facing possible impeachment over his sexual harassment allegations, Cuomo announced he was stepping down Tuesday. With that, the governor appears to not only have lost his leadership role, but the praise of media organizations who lauded him at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic and were accused of downplaying his role in the state's nursing home tragedy, as well as his harassment scandal.
"His political career is over," CNN's Dana Bash said Tuesday. "Now he’s trying to reshape his reputation and it’s not going to be easy."
CNN panelists said it was "hard to imagine" Cuomo was the same person being pushed to run for president by some figures last year.
But some of those voices included ones on their own network. "Andrew Cuomo said he'll never run for president. That's a mistake," a headline from CNN commentator Chris Cillizza read last March at the height of the governor's popularity, arguing he should not rule out a run because he had raised his national profile.
"But the reality -- and trust me, someone who has been in and around politics for as long as Andrew Cuomo knows this -- is that a) he is getting extremely high marks not just in New York but nationally for his take-the-bull-by-the-horns approach to the crisis and b) the fight against coronavirus will be the defining moment in not only his governorship but his political career to date," Cillizza wrote.
In their ire on Tuesday, the panelists also did not address how their own colleague, host Chris Cuomo, is engulfed in his brother's scandal, having helped the governor draft a response to the allegations. His extensive involvement in Gov. Cuomo's political operations have led to media watchdogs calling for him to either be suspended or fired.
MSNBC, whose partisan hosts like Nicolle Wallace and Joy Reid also gushed over Cuomo last year, appeared just as outraged by the governor's behavior, with Andrea Mitchell hitting Cuomo and his attorney Rita Glavin for engaging in victim shaming. Mitchell told her audience that Cuomo had been a toxic presence his entire career.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO RESIGNS AMID SEXUAL HARASSMENT SCANDAL: WHAT’S NEXT FOR CNN AND CHRIS CUOMO?
"MSNBC actually seems irritated at the obnoxious, arrogant exit of Andrew Cuomo," Newsbusters' Scott Whitlock tweeted.
Former Cuomo adviser Susan Del Percio was also trotted out to respond to her old boss's behavior.
"What a disgraceful way of conducting yourself out the door," she said.
GREENWALD SOUNDS OFF ON ‘REPULSIVE’ DELAYED DISCOURSE ON CUOMO: ‘THEY’RE PRETENDING TO BE HORRIFIED'
But, Whitlock added, the network is only "savaging" the governor now that he's on his way out.
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The media was ripped by critics this week for granting seemingly delayed coverage to some of the governor's other scandals. The New Yorker published a report on Tuesday highlighting a potentially illegal call Cuomo placed to the Obama administration in 2014, to which skeptics concluded Cuomo was "no longer any value" to the media and that such reports had "interesting timing."
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