Tuesday, August 24, 2021

24 August 2021: Cuomo Stripped of International Emmy Award

International Emmys Takes Back Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Honorary Emmy Award

This report may qualify as the bottom story of the day. Here's a Twitter post covering the statement from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences:

And here's deeper coverage from Variety, which tries to justify why the International Emmys awarded politician Cuomo with its top honor:

The award was given to acknowledge Cuomo’s use of television to provide information and a sense of calm to viewers during the early outbreak of the pandemic. The award was created to recognize individuals for their ability to transcend cultural divides in connecting to a “common humanity.”

“The Governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” Bruce L. Paisner, International Academy president and CEO, said at the time. “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back.”

Others previously honored with the Founders Award include Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Norman Lear.

The question of whether the International Academy would rescind the Emmy grew louder in recent weeks, after state Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation found that Cuomo had sexually harassed multiple women. The investigation, released on Aug. 3, found that Gov. Cuomo “sexually harassed a number of current and former New York State employees by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women.”

In truth, questions of whether the International Academy should ever have presented Cuomo with an Emmy have been voiced from the very moment the body awarded Cuomo with an Emmy. Here is previous coverage from the timeline:

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