29 August 2021: A Short List of Who Did Great Reporting on Cuomo Scandals

Jerry Moore: Andrew Cuomo’s supporters are ready to stand by their man

Columnist Jerry Moore wrote his column on a very different topic, namely the responses he has received from his supporters attempting to refute various portions of the 3 August 2021 state attorney general's report on the sexual harassment allegations that ultimately led Andrew M. Cuomo to choose to resign from power rather than face certain impeachment.

But on the way, he identifies many reporters whose work in investigating and reporting on Cuomo contributed as much to Cuomo's resignation as the misconduct in which he and members of his administration engaged. We thought that listing deserves highlighting:

With the focus of my work being more on Northern New York than on Albany, I wasn’t counting myself among these excellent journalists. But they are out there, and they’ve kept people informed about what’s going on in Albany. Individuals who’ve persistently shed light on the Cuomo administration include Brendan Lyons of the Times Union, Bernadette Hogan of the New York Post, Bill Hammond of the Empire Center for Public Policy, Anne McCloy of WRGB-TV, Jimmy Vielkind of the Wall Street Journal, Morgan Mckay of Spectrum News and Kate Lisa of the Watertown Daily Times (my apologies to anyone I didn’t mention who’s kept the pressure on Cuomo — keep it up!)

We'll add a handful of names to Moore's short list: Chris Bragg and Chris Churchill of the Albany Times-Union, Carl Campanile of the New York Post, and Tori Richards of the Washington Examiner come immediately to mind. We'll also note the investigative work of a number of reporters at the Associated Press who contributed high quality reporting on Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals and cover-up.

If you note the news outlets, you'll recognize they span a wide range across the ideological spectrum. What makes their work stand out is their placing facts-based reporting ahead of the modern popular practice of narrative-based journalism that predominates at other outlets with wide reach, such as the New York Times, MSNBC and, most notoriously, CNN.

That's important to understand because the practice of narrative-based journalism is what propelled Cuomo to the heights of his popularity and power in early May 2020. Its propagandistic nature, including the suppression of reporting of objective facts that contradict the pre-determined narrative, helped Andrew M. Cuomo to remain in power for as long as he did. Its why the news outlets that practice narrative-based journalism need to clean house themselves and return to sound journalism practices.