Back in March, former staffer Charlotte Bennett blamed the media “absolutely” for making Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) feel so “untouchable” that he thought he could get away with victimizing her. On Sunday, Fox News media reporter and host of MediaBuzz, Howard Kurtz called out the media for acting like political operatives and minimizing the allegations early on as they now “play catch-up” to make themselves look good.
“Sure it's easy now,” Kurtz proclaimed just seconds into his show, “it's easy for the media to denounce Andrew Cuomo, to decry the sexual harassment findings, to insist like The New York Times and Washington Post that the governor must go. And yet, remember, this is the guy who the pundits lionized last year as a pandemic superstar.”
After playing back-to-back soundbites of MSNBC talking heads fawn for Cuomo, he dressed down the media for trying to ignore the story early on. “But when the first Cuomo accuser came forward in February, there was nothing on the network evening newscasts, nothing initially on MSNBC, a brief mention on CNN, a few sentences of the Today show. Here's how I put it at the time on this program,” he said.
Adding: “But they had to deal with it as enterprising reporters found more accusers and the state attorney general launched an investigation.”
He then called them out for waiting until the scandal mushroomed and they couldn’t hide it from their audiences anymore:
But that’s the thing. When you ignore or minimize a credible allegation against a popular politician you run the risk of having to play catch-up later when the scandal mushrooms and it's too big to ignore. That was the moment of truth, not now, when everyone is revolted by chilling evidence that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 different women.
And in calling on guest and Federalist publisher, Ben Domenech, Kurtz described how “media built up Andrew Cuomo to an almost unbelievable degree and have now turned on him with a vengeance. But when these allegations first surfaced, many just looked away. Nothing to see here.”
“You know, the lookback at the media's performance during this is not going to be a pleasant one for really anyone who lauded Andrew Cuomo as being this incredible leader,” Domenech said.
He then chided the liberal media because their reporting on Cuomo, and how they portrayed him, “was wrong in every respect”:
And what's amazing is to look back at the coverage and see how it was wrong in every respect. It was wrong when it came to his response to Covid. It was wrong when it came to the idea that as Steve Schmidt said he was some kind of heroic figure emerging from this. And the initial brush-off that you made reference to of reporting around these latest scandals is really a travesty in retrospect.
He also feared that Cuomo and “many politicians have taken from the experience of Governor Ralph Northam in Virginia, is that you can just keep your head down and bowl forward and survive anything like this.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz
August 8, 2021
11:00:20 a.m. EasternHOWARD KURTZ: Sure it's easy now, it's easy for the media to denounce Andrew Cuomo, to decry the sexual harassment findings, to insist like The New York Times and Washington Post that the governor must go. And yet, remember, this is the guy who the pundits lionized last year as a pandemic superstar.
(…)
KURTZ: But when the first Cuomo accuser came forward in February, there was nothing on the network evening newscasts, nothing initially on MSNBC, a brief mention on CNN, a few sentences of the Today show. Here's how I put it at the time on this program.
KURTZ (via video): But the first instinct of the network newscasts, CNN, MSNBC was to do as little as possible, and sometimes nothing, about the Democratic governor. They were kind of acting like political operatives. [Licks finger and points up] Maybe this will blow over, we won't have to deal with it.
KURTZ (live): But they had to deal with it as enterprising reporters found more accusers and the state attorney general launched an investigation.
But that’s the thing. When you ignore or minimize a credible allegation against a popular politician you run the risk of having to play catch-up later when the scandal mushrooms and it's too big to ignore. That was the moment of truth, not now, when everyone is revolted by chilling evidence that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 different women.
(…)
11:03:48 a.m. Eastern
KURTZ: Ben, media built up Andrew Cuomo to an almost unbelievable degree and have now turned on him with a vengeance. But when these allegations first surfaced, many just looked away. Nothing to see here.
BEN DOMENECH: You know, the lookback at the media's performance during this is not going to be a pleasant one for really anyone who lauded Andrew Cuomo as being this incredible leader.
And what's amazing is to look back at the coverage and see how it was wrong in every respect. It was wrong when it came to his response to Covid. It was wrong when it came to the idea that as Steve Schmidt said he was some kind of heroic figure emerging from this. And the initial brush-off that you made reference to of reporting around these latest scandals is really a travesty in retrospect.
What I fear, though, is that the lesson that so many politicians have taken from the experience of Governor Ralph Northam in Virginia, is that you can just keep your head down and bowl forward and survive anything like this. And I think that that's probably what's going to happen with Governor Cuomo as well. He's a powerful, well-connected Democratic politician. I think he's just going to decide “I'm going to ignore all my critics including the president of the United States and I'm going to stick this out.”
(…)
