CNN’s Chris “Fredo” Cuomo was particularly unhinged during Thursday’s PrimeTime as he invoked the fictional and mentally ill anchorman, Howard Beale (played by actor Peter Finch in the 1976 film Network) to demand his audience be “outraged” by the President Trump’s “hoax” of a response to the coronavirus. As part of Cuomo’s plan to tap into Trump and Republican Party’s “fear of consequence,” he seemed to encourage voter fraud.
“You want your kids in school? You want to get back to work for real? Demand those in power do their damn jobs,” he explained. “How? You have to get angry about what's happening. You must be outraged by the obvious. I know you are.”
Cuomo insisted that “good conscience will not move these men and women to do the right thing for us.” Teeing up a clip from an iconic scene from the movie, he suggested “one of the great movies captured where we are right now.”
Ignoring the fact that the Beale character was a mentally disturbed man who heard voices and was abused by his network for ratings and money, Fredo played an edited version of his “mad as Hell” speech (click “expand”):
HOWARD BEALE (via actor Peter Finch): It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shop keepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and nobody seems to know what to do and there is no end to it.
[SCREEN WIPE]
I want you to get mad I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, “I'm a human being, God dammit, my life has value!”
So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, “I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!”
“It was true then. It's true now. If you are not mad as hell at what's happening in this country, you're not paying attention,” Cuomo proclaimed after the clip.
After quipping about how one didn’t have to stick their head out a window anymore because of the internet (though this author would note that most computers run Windows), Cuomo instructed his viewers on how to have their voice heard. “You have to let the people in power, the people on the fringe, the people who comment on the people on the fringe, let them know how outraged you are,” he said.
But in that instruction, he seemed to encourage his fans to commit voter fraud. “Let them know you are going to vote everywhere and in every race you can,” he demanded.
Further venting his outrage, Fredo lashed out at Trump and other GOP leaders. “None of us is immune to this danger. Only two states have declining cases. 39 are on the rise. The reason is the hoax of our response,” he raged. He “hoax” comment harkened back to his repeated use of fake news that claimed Trump had called the virus a “hoax.”
“[Governor Ron] DeSantis [R-FL] calls the explosion a blip. All those sick and dead, no plan, in denial, hiding hospitalization numbers,” he continued, advocating for the Governor’s removal from office. “The question is, will voters make him a blip? Where is the outrage? Force him to face the facts.”
Adding: “This is the outrage. Because they are all -- Kemp, DeSantis, Abbott in Texas -- they're all on the Trump train and they're all off the rails as a result. There should be outrage.”
Further, Fredo doubled down on his use of vulgar language to bash the President and his allies, even going so far as to defend its use:
You're outraged. The media is outraged. This is BS what he's doing! I don't have to curse for this to be vulgar. It's all profane. It's all vulgar. Don't worry about the words. Worry about what warrants those words.
Now, given how the plot of Network was partially a comment on the decline of the news media in favor of manipulating rage for profit, and Cuomo’s own unhinged nature, it’s very ironic that Beale was invoked.
Cuomo’s Howard Beale spiel was made possible by sponsorships from Sandals Hotels and Resorts and Wayfair. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo PrimeTime
July 16, 2020
9:02:17 p.m. Eastern(…)
CHRIS CUOMO: You want your kids in school? You want to get back to work for real? Demand those in power do their damn jobs. How? You have to get angry about what's happening. You must be outraged by the obvious. I know you are.
Here's why. Good conscience will not move these men and women to do the right thing for us. Okay? You see it. It has not led our leaders to lessen our load. What will is tapping into their fear of consequence. Many years have passed, but one of the great movies captured where we are right now and where change has to starts. Remember this from Network.
[Cuts to video]
HOWARD BEALE (via actor Peter Finch): It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shop keepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and nobody seems to know what to do and there is no end to it.
[Transition]
I want you to get mad I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, “I'm a human being, God dammit, my life has value!”
So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, “I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!”
[Cuts back to live]
CUOMO: It was true then. It's true now. If you are not mad as hell at what's happening in this country, you're not paying attention.
You can go online. You don't have to go out the window anymore. You have to let the people in power, the people on the fringe, the people who comment on the people on the fringe, let them know how outraged you are. Let them know you are going to vote everywhere and in every race you can.
None of us is immune to this danger. Only two states have declining cases. 39 are on the rise. The reason is the hoax of our response.
(…)
DeSantis calls the explosion a blip. All those sick and dead, no plan, in denial, hiding hospitalization numbers. The question is, will voters make him a blip? Where is the outrage? Force him to face the facts.
(…)
This is the outrage. Because they are all -- Kemp, DeSantis, Abbott in Texas -- they're all on the Trump train and they're all off the rails as a result. There should be outrage.
(…)
You're outraged. The media is outraged. This is BS what he's doing! I don't have to curse for this to be vulgar. It's all profane. It's all vulgar. Don't worry about the words. Worry about what warrants those words.
(…)
