Sunday, April 18, 2021

18 April 2021: Questions from Team Cuomo's Hand-Picked Reporters

Andrew Cuomo still issuing orders while refusing to answer questions

The New York Post's editors have capped the weekend with an editorial blasting the Cuomo administration's cowardly tactics to keep Governor Cuomo from facing serious questions about any of the many scandals swirling around his administration from reporters. In the editorial, they make this observation:

On Friday, during a virtual news conference in Buffalo, Cuomo called on only five, hand-picked reporters … who then lobbed softball questions rather than asking any of the obvious and damning ones.

In fact, the gov hasn’t answered a single in-person question since December, the Albany Times-Union reported, noting that “reporters have been frustrated by this, with many choosing to highlight each day that journalists are barred from Cuomo’s public events, which often take on the tone of political rallies.”

Instead, he’s relying on his Emmy-winning credentials of “effective use of television during the pandemic” by only answering questions via Zoom or conference calls, so his staff can run interference for him.

Before we continue, we should note the Post's editors erred in their count of "hand-picked reporters. Instead of five, there were six.

At the same time, the "softball questions" referenced in the editorial is a common theme we've seen across multiple news outlets during the last several days. However, we haven't yet seen any of the questions that were presented to Governor Cuomo, so we tracked down a transcript of Governor Cuomo's 16 April 2021 news conference to find out what questions Team Cuomo is confident Governor Cuomo can answer with their help and extensive preparation these days....

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo COVID-19 Press Conference Transcript April 16

Here's the first question, from the Buffalo News' Jonathan Epstein, who asked about a broadband initiative Governor Cuomo discussed in his presentation:

I wanted to ask about from earlier a little more about the fund for the students. How big is that fund going to be? And what exactly is it going to provide for those students or those people who fit the low income category? And do you expect pushback from companies on all the broadband issue?

Here's the second question, from Karina Gerry of WUTR in Utica, NY:

So here in the Mohawk Valley in Marcy, [inaudible 00:54:32] is near completion. And right now, Danfoss is the only occupant at Quad-C. We hear of expansion from chip manufacturers in the Albany area, like GlobalFoundries. Do you expect that there will be more processing plants coming into the Marcy site? I know we haven’t heard anything from Empire State Development in awhile.

The third question was from Jayne Chacko of WHAM in Rochester, NY:

I wanted to ask you about the curfew for restaurants. I know it’s extended to midnight, but many still having issue with that, especially with summer and more events happening. Can they expect it to be extended anytime soon?

The fourth question is from Dave Evans of WABC:

Good to see you, governor. Hey, I wanted to ask you, just a followup to the question that you just got about the bars and restaurants. I know it’s going to be a little bit better here, starting on Monday, but we still have the rules where you have to sit down, you can’t walk around in a bar, they’ll be closing at midnight. But then we see, for example, the casino in Queens open till five o’clock in the morning. Folks here need a break, what can they hope for?

The fifth reporter hand-picked by Team Cuomo to provide a question for Governor Cuomo to answer was provided by WKBW's Ed Drantch:

Governor, good afternoon to you or good morning, rather. We heard you a couple of days ago addressed the vaccine issue at Highmark Stadium with the Buffalo Bills. After you said that you think that the county executive may have overstepped his bounds, a spokesperson for the county said essentially that they can do what they want because it’s on county property. So where do you stand at this point about getting Buffalo Bills fans back into Highmark Stadium?

Drantch was the only reporter rewarded with a follow up question:

Can I just follow up, if I may? We have been used essentially as Buffalo as an example for the rest of the state in getting back to bigger events in terms of the testing before the Bills’ playoffs games at home. So could that be a possibility that we see before the start of next season, these mass testing clinics so that we can prove that we’re COVID negative, if not for a vaccine?

You can almost sense the last two reporters' willingness to roll over onto their backs in hope of receiving a belly rub from Governor Cuomo.

The final questions asked came from Marcia Kramer of WCBS after an odd exchange between her and the Governor on the topic of "New York State Clean" hand sanitizer. We'll skip over that exchange to get to her more hard-hitting questions:

The first one is pretty simple. I just wondered how many people will be able to get this $15 internet. And my second question has to do with gun violence. In New York City, it seems to continue unabated. And I know you’ve asked for police reform plans from New York City, which I don’t think includes a plan for dealing with gun violence. I wonder if you would accept their reform plan, even though it doesn’t have a plan for dealing with gun violence and what should you do to stop the killing?

Those questions are about as far away as you can get from any of Governor Cuomo's ongoing scandals that he and his administration seek to avoid being asked about. Topics not covered by the six reporters hand-picked for their willingness to play ball with Team Cuomo include:

There's more, but you get the idea. And now you know how these members of the news media play softball!

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