Fox News Network’s new streaming service Fox Nation has been developing a new documentary that explores the various scandals that have erupted from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s time in office. Titled “The Collapse of Cuomo,” the special broadcast will cover the various sexual harassment allegations that have been brought against the Governor, as well as the entire nursing home death disaster. Knowing Andrew Cuomo’s infamously short temper, he certainly can’t be pleased about this. But seemingly adding insult to injury, Fox Nation will be running ads for their special on CNN during Chris Cuomo’s show. Something tells me that this didn’t happen by accident. (Mediaite)
Fox Nation, Fox News Media’s subscription-based streaming service, will debut a new special, The Collapse of Cuomo, that focuses on the scandals swirling around Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), and they’re promoting it with an ad running on his brother Chris Cuomo’s CNN program, Mediaite can exclusively report.
The 30-second ad will be running on Cuomo Prime Time, as well as other CNN programs like New Day and The Situation Room, targeting key markets in New York City and Washington, DC. The ad contains a clip from a now-infamous May 2020 interview that Chris Cuomo conducted with his gubernatorial brother in which the CNN host teased him with a giant cotton swab prop.
The ad scrolls through several articles highlighting the various sexual harassment and assault accusations that have piled up over the last few months, as well as the nursing home deaths blamed on Gov. Cuomo’s Covid-19 policies.
As I said, this seems like an unlikely choice to spend advertising dollars at first glance. You would think that the audience CNN attracts overall would be more forgiving of Andrew Cuomo than the average American and those who tune in to watch Chris Cuomo would be even more empathetic. So Fox Nation probably isn’t hitting a market where they will attract a lot of eyeballs to their new special. But perhaps that was never the point to begin with. This choice of advertising slots may just lead to more earned media coverage of both the new subscription service and the Cuomo special because of the audacity of the move.
Mediaite poses the question of why CNN would agree to run the ad at all, to say nothing of doing so during the younger Cuomo’s show. While I’m sure some of the network executives aren’t thrilled about this, they might have felt like they really didn’t have any choice. Chris Cuomo himself previously stated that it would be “inappropriate” for him to cover his brother’s travails, but said that his network would continue to do so. And the network is obviously aware of the constant accusations of liberal bias on CNN. The possible impeachment of “America’s Shadow President” is a huge story, and a refusal to run the ad would almost certainly reinforce that perception for many people.
Meanwhile, out in the real world, Andrew Cuomo continues to insist that he did nothing wrong, either in terms of the sexual harassment allegations or the nursing home deaths and subsequent coverup of the numbers. He continues to tell everyone to wait for the results of the Attorney General’s investigation. But the primary sharks are circling and even the state’s Republicans are smelling blood in the water. The longer this investigation drags out, the worse for Cuomo (and New York) it might be.
You can watch the commercial at the beginning of this Fox News clip where they go on to discuss the special and recap some of Andrew Cuomo’s most egregious scandals.