‘THEY BROKE THAT STORY’

Fox Host Gets Corrected On-Air When He Claims NYT Is ‘Far Behind’ on Cuomo Scandal

“We wouldn’t even be talking about it if it wasn’t for the New York Times story. Just pointing that out,” Fox correspondent Gillian Turner shot back on Monday.

Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner pushed back against her colleague Jason Chaffetz for claiming The New York Times was “far behind” on covering the misconduct scandal surrounding Andrew Cuomo, reminding the ex-congressman on Monday that the Times broke the story of the New York governor’s second sexual-harassment accuser.

In recent weeks, as Cuomo has come under intense fire over revelations about nursing home COVID deaths and accusations of sexual misconduct, Fox News has repeatedly lashed out at mainstream media outlets for providing scant coverage of Cuomo.

Over the past few days, however, networks such as CNN and MSNBC have devoted ample time to the controversies, each mentioning Cuomo dozens of times since the Times’ story broke this past Saturday.

While reporters at Fox News acknowledged the extensive coverage of the Democratic governor at non-conservative outlets—all while still criticizing the mainstream media for allegedly taking too long to come around—Chaffetz was still stuck on classic right-wing media talking points.

Appearing on early-afternoon panel show Outnumbered, Chaffetz—a Fox News contributor and occasional host—first talked about how much trouble Cuomo is in politically as Democrats have grown increasingly critical of the governor and even called for his resignation. At the same time, he dutifully took aim at the press.

“We will see what the media does, they’ve been very tepid in doing this,” Chaffetz exclaimed. “Only the New York Post and a handful of others have covered this with the seriousness that it takes. The New York Times and other big media outlets have been far behind.”

Turner immediately corrected Chaffetz’s characterization of the Times’ reporting on the scandal.

“But the Times broke the most recent story about the victim Charlotte Bennett, the second woman,” she said. “They broke that story.”

Turner added: “We wouldn’t even be talking about it if it wasn’t for the New York Times story. Just pointing that out.”

A somewhat flustered Chaffetz conceded that Times was responsible for the new reporting but complained that “they were very slow to the mark.”

The panel show’s co-host Emily Compagno, for her part, concluded by congratulating her own network.

“You both are right that coverage now seems to be exploding, led by us, of course,” she declared.

Cuomo, meanwhile, maintains his “playful” banter has been “misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation.” The New York attorney general, a Democrat, has called for a “truly independent investigation to thoroughly review” the allegations against Cuomo.

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Justin BaragonaSenior Media Reporter

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