—–

ABC News reporter Amy Robach did an “interview” with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) earlier this week that made his brother Chris Cuomo’s “Q-tip” segment on CNN from last month look like the gold standard of investigative journalism.

In case you missed it, Free Beacon compiled a highlight reel that demonstrated the absurdly unserious nature of the interview at a time when Cuomo is facing more questions back home about the nursing home scandal and other examples of his failed leadership during the Wuhan virus outbreak.

Watch below as Robach throws him softball after softball, at one point gushing about how he had been dubbed “the Luv Guv” by the New York Post, and mentioning how Chelsea Handler “wrote you a love letter essay.” Not one question – not one – on his nursing home executive order from March that some are blaming for the deaths of thousands of senior citizens in nursing homes and other assisted living facilities in New York:

SUPERCUT: ABC News anchor @arobach did not exactly rake Andrew Cuomo over the coals in her exclusive interview with the governor about his coronavirus response. https://t.co/e8rvYgECsh pic.twitter.com/hI8M4jwONf

— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) June 17, 2020

Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who has been focused like a laser beam on holding Cuomo accountable for the deaths of her in-laws, was not amused:

I just watched the @GMA interview with @NYGovCuomo again to see if I missed the part where @arobach asked him about his deadly policy of allowing Covid patients into nursing homes. And she never asked about it. Instead she asked if he liked being called the Luv Guv.

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) June 17, 2020

Zero questions about his policy of forcing Covid patients into nursing homes and helping kill over 6,000 elderly. Biggest softball interview ever.

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) June 18, 2020

Yep.

Let’s be even more blunt about this. That wasn’t a reporter interviewing an elected official with hardhitting questions. This was a woman fangirling and fawning over a man whose disastrous decisions and failure to work alongside NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio (who is equally culpable here) to come up with a unified strategy in the early days of the virus are inarguably responsible for the spread of the virus not just in his state, but all over the country.

Robach all but asked for his autograph and a picture together.

I understand after the leak of the tape with her comments about how ABC allegedly killed her Jeffrey Epstein story that she might be eager to get back into the good graces of the network, but this was just appalling, a low point in a series of lows we’ve seen in journalism this year.

Someone she leave this question on Robach’s desk as a friendly reminder to remember what’s important here (hint: plumping pillows for Democratic politicians does not fall into the category of “important” in the real world):

Someone left this note for the OAN personality at the White House: “Do you think your question was helpful in halting the spread of the coronavirus?” pic.twitter.com/Jy8rzVs5Y0

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) March 19, 2020

Journalists have got to do better than this. They won’t, but they should.