New MRC Poll PROVES Media’s Cuomo Cover-Up Distorted Public’s View
MarchCuomoPoll
When Americans learn about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s negligent policy of returning infectious patients to nursing homes at the height of the pandemic, they are much more likely to give Cuomo failing grades for his handling of the crisis, according to a new poll conducted on behalf of the Media Research Center (MRC) by McLaughlin & Associates.
But due to the liberal media’s failure to properly cover this important story, one quarter of all voters have been left in the dark about this important story, our poll discovered. Once informed, those voters swung from a plurality (45%) having a favorable view of Cuomo’s handling of the crisis, to a lopsided 65% majority having an unfavorable view.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacted:
“As New Yorkers grieve the loss of family due to Andrew Cuomo’s criminal COVID-19 nursing home policy, the media have completely turned a blind eye. It goes without question, had this happened under a Republican governor’s watch, they would be crucified on national television daily.
“Instead, as the details of this scandal emerged, the media hailed Cuomo as a pandemic hero and America’s savior from President Trump. The hypocrisy is stunning, yet unsurprising. The liberal media are fully aware of the influence they have over public opinion. This was no mistake. The media are complicit in Governor Cuomo’s deceitful cover-up.”
According to an MRC study, there were 401 broadcast evening news stories which mentioned Cuomo in 2020, yet only two of those (0.5%) even mentioned the controversy over his handling of nursing home patients.
Despite blockbuster revelations this year, those ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts only provided a combined 10 minutes, 56 seconds of coverage from January 28 through February 25. That’s in spite of news that Cuomo’s administration concealed the true number of infected patients sent to nursing homes, significantly under-reported the number of deaths among nursing home residents, and was being investigated by federal prosecutors.
Our nationwide poll of 1,000 general election voters, conducted between February 24 and February 28, shows the consequences of the media’s failure to give the story significant coverage. Only two-thirds of voters (66.5%) said they had heard about the mishandling of nursing home patients and the Cuomo administration’s cover-up, while 25% said they had not heard about the story. (The remaining 8.5% did not know if they had heard about it or not.)
Of those who were already informed, a large majority (55.8%) had an unfavorable impression of how Cuomo handled the pandemic in his state, vs. 40.3% who had a favorable impression.
But those who did not previously know about this story had the opposite take, with 44.9% giving Cuomo favorable marks, vs. only 34.5% who gave him an unfavorable review.
After learning about the nursing home story, the previously uninformed group swung heavily in the other direction, with 65.1% giving Cuomo an unfavorable rating, vs. only 24.7% who thought he had done a good job.
According to the poll, Democrats were the least likely to know about the nursing home scandal, with 31.5% saying they had not heard about it. For comparison, only 23.4% of Independents and 19.6% of Republicans were similarly uninformed.
About the poll:
This survey of 1,000 general election voters nationwide was conducted between February 24 and February 28 by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of the Media Research Center.
All interviews were conducted online; survey invitations were distributed randomly within predetermined geographic units. These units were structured to correlate with actual voter turnout in the general election.
The poll of 1,000 general election voters has an accuracy of +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence interval.
