Fox News has reported that coverage from CNN and MSNBC over Senator Ted Cruz’s ill-timed trip to Cancun to escape his state’s freezing temperatures was extensive, while the channels virtually ignored the investigations into Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s growing nursing home scandal.
Senator Ted Cruz is under fire for choosing to escape to Cancun, Mexico in the aftermath of one of Texas’ worst winter storms in recent memory. He’s explained that the vacation was at the request of his daughters, and it is a decision he now regrets.
“The plan had been to stay through the weekend with the family,” Cruz said after arriving back in Texas. “On the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our families. But I also have a responsibility that I take very seriously of fighting for the state of Texas.”
Currently, millions in the state remain without power, and sometimes water as well, as the electrical grid failed in light of a historic winter storm.
The media has jumped on the story.
The New York Times published an article entitled, “Ted Cruz’s Cancún Trip: Family Texts Detail His Political Blunder.”
The Washington Post states, “Usually it takes at least one full day in Cancun to do something embarrassing you’ll never live down. But for Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), it took just 10 hours – from when his United plane touched down at Cancun International Airport at 7:52 p.m. Wednesday to when he booked a return flight back to Houston around 6 a.m. Thursday – for the state’s junior senator to apparently realize he had made a horrible mistake.”
But these media outlets have yet to cover Gov. Cuomo’s growing scandal regarding his administration’s attempts to cover up the number of nursing home deaths due to an ill-conceived policy with the same level of fervor.
As Fox News reports, “CNN and the governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo, have made an unprecedented push to downplay and deflect from the Democrat’s controversies, with the far-left network giving its developments little to no airtime – and giving Chris Cuomo free rein to conduct friendly, comical interviews with the scandal-plagued governor (who is also his brother).”
Gov. Cuomo’s administration is currently under investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn for covering up the number of deaths that occurred in his state after he issued an executive order forcing nursing homes to house recovering COVID-positive patients with healthy residents.
Cuomo’s growing scandal, which likely directly contributed to the deaths of thousands of nursing home residents, received only three minutes of airtime, while Cruz’s attempt to flee disaster in Texas has resulted in 46 minutes of airtime on both networks.
CNN host Don Lemmon spent 12 minutes attacking Cruz, and never mentioned Cuomo’s situation. MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Lawrence O’Donnell both spent about 13 minutes speaking about Cruz’s blunder. Anderson Cooper was the only host on either CNN or MSNBC to even cover the investigations into Cuomo, but only devoted a little under three minutes.
The broadcast networks were mostly the same, with only “CBS Evening News” dedicating only a minute more time to Cuomo’s legal troubles than Cruz’s Cancun trip.
The media considers itself the watchdog of democracy, but this self-professed mission loses all meaning when the media sees fit to seemingly hide or downplay one scandal while obsessing over another.
Photo from STRINGER/REUTERS