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It’s just been downright infuriating to watch the mainstream media fawn over NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) like a lovesick puppy.

The CNNs, MSNBCs, and the WaPo’s of America barely have a critical word to write about him. He is treated with the utmost reverence and respect, especially on CNN for obvious reasons.

On the opinion side, the ooohing and aaahing is even more effusive, as Washington Post “conservative” columnist Jennifer Rubin has demonstrated in recent opinion pieces in her own unique fangirl way.

Late night TV show hosts and various popular “entertainment” programs can’t seem to get enough of him, or the fact that he’s single (because that has everything to do with the Wuhan coronavirus crisis, right?).

This in spite of his failed leadership from the start of the Wuhan coronavirus in his state, and as the virus continues to rage on.

In fact, it is inarguable at this point that Cuomo’s failure to responsibly lead and come up with a unified strategy alongside equally incompetent NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in the early days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in their state led to outbreaks that occurred in many other states around the country.

In contrast, however, the mainstream press has dunked on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) every chance they get. This in spite of the fact that Florida, which has a higher population – especially among high-risk senior citizens – than New York, has had far fewer cases and deaths. The restrictions put in place statewide also came about a week or so after New York’s.

In addition to Cuomo being top on their list of governors who have allegedly managed the outbreak brilliantly, the media also cannot swoon enough over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision-making in California.

The national media have so obviously turned a blind eye to Newsom’s leadership failures that it has taken boots on the ground journalism from local reporters like Fox L.A.’s Bill Melugin to ask the tough questions and demand answers from local and state leaders as to just why the goalposts for reopening conveniently keep changing.

There are three basic metrics the national media have been using in a general sense to determine whether or not a governor has been “effective” at managing the Wuhan coronavirus crisis in their state:

1) The party affiliation of the governor. They must be a Democrat – or at least act like one.
2) The number of overall confirmed cases and deaths, and whether or not they can (erroneously) be blamed on whether or not stay at home/shelter in place orders were put into place early on.
3) If a Democratic governor has a high number of cases and deaths in spite of the lockdowns and increased restrictions put into place in their states as the outbreak grew bigger, standard operating procedure for the media is to default to rule number one.

That is exactly what they’ve done here with Cuomo and Newsom vs. DeSantis.

It’s gross, and does a real disservice to people who look to the media for information on how (and what) leaders in their communities are doing. Now more than ever is a critical time for journalists to get it right, but the ones at the national level simply cannot resist falling into familiar partisan patterns in their reporting, which has played a major role in perceptions of how governors are performing.