Cuomo's nursing home strategy was 'fatal,' didn't follow federal guidelines: Rep. Stefanik
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik explains why she is seeking a probe into New York's nursing home crisis
The New York Times was blasted on Thursday for its gentle treatment of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus outbreak.
Through much of the coronavirus crisis, there has been growing scrutiny over the Democratic governor's order in late March that forced nursing homes to accept patients who tested positive for coronavirus, despite testing deficiencies for both residents and staff. Cuomo signed an executive order on May 11 reversing the policy, stopping hospitals from sending infected patients back to nursing homes and ramping up testing for staff.
A report published on Wednesday in the Times posed the question "Does Cuomo Share Blame for 6,200 Virus Deaths in N.Y. Nursing Homes?" in its headline. However, just two paragraphs deep, the report suggests that any uproar towards Cuomo's weeks-long order for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients is partisan.
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"What went wrong? The effort to answer that question has become politically charged, with Republican lawmakers using the deaths to try to undermine Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, who has largely been praised for helping New York State to rein in the outbreak," the Times wrote.
Conservative commentator Stephen Miller mocked the Times for using the "Republicans pounce" trope and called the paragraph "incredible."
"Thousands dead and The NY Times is still hedging for their dude," Miller tweeted.
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"NY Times covering Cuomo is indistinguishable from al-Manar covering Hassan Nasrallah," Washington Examiner executive editor Seth Mandel said about the Lebanese television station and the Hezbollah leader.
Writer A.G. Hamilton blasted the paper for drawing so much focus on Cuomo's own report on his nursing home response, arguing, "it’s like uncritically citing an OJ Simpson report about the person actually responsible for Nicole Brown’s death."
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"Ignored in this is that the Cuomo admin suggested letting sick nurses go to work at nursing homes at one point, they weren’t mandating regular staff testing until May, & doesn’t even consider possibility many of the nurses got sick at the homes from the patients they re-admitted," Hamilton explained.
"The NY Times ability to hold Democrats to account the way they hold Republicans is virtually zero," radiologist and National Review contributor Pradheep Shanker wrote.
"If Ron DeSantis had ordered nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients and it led to 6,000+ deaths, the media wouldn't even ask the question and jump right to accusing him of genocide," Daily Caller's Greg Price similarly said about the Republican governor of Florida.
The Times isn't the only media out accused of shielding Cuomo. CNN continues to ignore or downplay news that is harmful to the New York governor, whose younger brother Chris anchors the network’s most popular show, failing to mention a new report linking a controversial decision by Gov. Cuomo to thousands of deaths inside his state’s nursing homes.
The Associated Press reported late Monday that “New York hospitals released more than 6,300 recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes during the height” of the coronavirus pandemic under a “controversial, now-scrapped policy.”
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The AP reported that Cuomo and other state officials argued the decision was “was not to blame for one of the nation's highest nursing home death tolls,” noting the governor has “taken intense criticism over the policy.”
A search of transcripts revealed that CNN completely ignored the AP report on air Monday and Tuesday, with absolutely zero coverage. A search of CNN’s website did not find any digital coverage, either.
Chris Cuomo finally mentioned the nursing home controversy in his latest interview with his brother in late June after months of avoiding the subject.
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.