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Imagine for a few seconds how bad the outrage would be from all the usual suspects in the media, including CNN media reporters Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy, if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appeared on Fox News to be interviewed by a family member in the middle of a pandemic. Even worse, imagine if they spent virtually the entire segment yucking it up instead of taking the issue seriously, with the host of the program neglecting to ask serious questions of their family member about scandals involving the deaths of thousands of senior citizens at nursing homes in their state.

That segment is exactly what happened on CNN last night, except it wasn’t DeSantis and a family member who spent 25 minutes laughing and talking about everything except the elephant in the room. It was CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who once again hosted his brother Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a fluffy “interview” devoid of any focus whatsoever on the NY nursing home scandal that should be on the front pages of every single major newspaper and the first topic discussed on cable news programs.

Newsbusters’ Nick Fondacaro describes how it went down:

Chris began the show by bashing President Trump. “Please join me tonight not spending any more time about this nonsense about the President refusing to acknowledge anything should have been done differently in the handling of the pandemic,” he chided. “Have you ever heard him take responsibility for any mistake?”

That set the stage for a huge dose of hypocrisy when he started to interview his brother.

As they were approaching the first commercial break, Chris drew attention to how his brother had a coronavirus test administered on him during his press conference earlier in the day (the same press conference where he deflected blame for putting COVID patients in nursing homes to President Trump).

“Now, a few questions about this process,” Chris said after playing the clip. “First of all, is it true that when you are having the test administered, you inhaled and the doctor’s finger went all the way up your nose and got stuck and it had to be released with a tool? Is that true? Just to deal with the record?”

They were doing Q-tip size comparisons. Seriously. You really have to see it to believe it. Watch:

Instead of asking his brother, @NYGovCuomo why he decided to pack COVID patients into nursing homes, killing untold amounts of people, @ChrisCuomo pulled out oversized, prop cotton swabs to mock how big his brother's nose was. This is the state of "journalism" on @CNN. Pathetic! pic.twitter.com/undeQMyVeN

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 21, 2020

Both Cuomo brothers have shared the segment on their official Twitter accounts.

Considering the many layers of hypocrisy at play here from both Cuomo brothers and CNN, Twitter users were understandably perplexed, and called them out:

It's not just @OliverDarcy and @BrianStelter who would lose their minds if the scenario below played out on Fox.

There would be UNIVERSAL condemnation from every corner of the media world if Cuomo were a Republican joking around with his brother on Fox. https://t.co/Ccqdqi5Hnu

— RBe (@RBPundit) May 21, 2020

This is a bizarre look for CNN

-No questions on nursing homes
-No questions about seeding outbreaks around the country
-No questions about the shutdown delay that led to thousands more deaths

For the “Trump isn’t taking this seriously enough” network this is just wild. https://t.co/sPsTVmCWi5

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) May 21, 2020

Guessing this image is a pretty good reason why Darcy & Stelter and any other CNN person talking about what’s on Fox locked down their replies. Because this should be the default response to them going forward. pic.twitter.com/buqCUcmwOe

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 21, 2020

CNN: "Fox News is literally state TV"

Also CNN: https://t.co/9z0JZjw2AJ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 21, 2020

Tens of thousands of people dead from COVID-19, and @ChrisCuomo spends his time with the Governor of New York joking about his nose. Again, not one question about nursing home deaths. CNN just doesn’t take COVID-19 seriously. This is a failure of journalism.#TedTurnerIsWeeping pic.twitter.com/ytOXOuqdIq

— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) May 21, 2020

28,000 dead New Yorkers, and it’s “Keeping Up With The Cuomos” on CNN… https://t.co/HxYXxxGE7I

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) May 21, 2020

This pretty much sums up the extent of the media’s (including CNN’s) “coverage” of the nursing home scandal:

Death Row https://t.co/KSEivCAenx pic.twitter.com/FkZ6ccdqqN

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) May 21, 2020

Instead of making size comparison jokes about Q-tips with his brother, Chris Cuomo should have asked him point blank about the size of the nursing home deaths in his state, which has the highest number in the nation – and there’s a strong probability that the number is much higher.

As others have noted, if this was Fox News doing this, Stelter, Darcy and all the rest would have erupted in outrage and would have spent hours on end talking about it on their social media feeds. But there’s been radio silence from them in response, and the reasons why could not be more obvious.