New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to reap the benefits of being a Democrat. The governor, whose disastrous pandemic leadership is partly responsible for why the Empire State has the most

total coronavirus deaths in the United States, as well as the second-highest per capita death rate in the country, will go home Monday with the International Emmy Founders Award. At this

rate, Cuomo would have to murder someone in the middle of the street in broad daylight for our news and entertainment industries to question his abilities as a leader. The governor’s award

comes “in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world,” the International Academy of Television

shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” International Academy President and CEO Bruce Paisner said of the group’s decision to reward Cuomo’s failures.

Paisner adds, “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and _New York tough_ became a symbol of the determination to fight back.” Prior recipients of the award, which

goes to individuals or organizations who cross “cultural boundaries to touch our common humanity,” include former Vice President Al Gore, Oprah Winfrey, and Steven Spielberg. The academy

makes its case for why it believes Cuomo deserves the Emmy: On March 2, 2020, New York Governor Cuomo conducted a media briefing from Albany, the State’s capital, to inform and educate New

Yorkers and the public at large about the coronavirus outbreak that was just starting to be recognized as a massive public health threat. That 12-minute introduction, part of a 34-minute

session with other state leaders, was the first of 111 consecutive daily briefings for New Yorkers and the wider world about the grim progress of the worst pandemic to hit the United States

in a century. The briefings were carried live by New York’s local TV stations, nationally on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and other news outlets in the U.S. and around the world. The last “daily”

briefing was held on June 19, 2020. These daily communications have drawn a total of 59 million viewers. Rewarding Cuomo’s failures is offensive on at least three levels. First, it is

offensive to the victims of the governor’s disastrous leadership, including the more than 11,000 people who may have died as a result of his order forcing infectious coronavirus patients

into long-term care facilities. Second, it is offensive because it denies the reality that Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic has been anything but noble and praiseworthy. It has been toxic,

capricious, misguided, confused, dishonest, self-aggrandizing, and, worst of all, ineffectual. Lastly, the Emmy is offensive because it assumes we are all too stupid to know any better.

_Andrew Cuomo has done a great job! Don’t trust every single thing that says otherwise!_ In a way, Cuomo serves as a reminder of what the world would look like had President Trump run and

won as a Democrat. Every failure, every excess, every outburst, and every lie would have been overlooked or praised as a virtue. Just look at Cuomo. The news and entertainment rackets hold

him up as a hero, despite the fact that he engages in the exact behavior for which Trump is rightly condemned. But Cuomo has the _correct _political affiliations, the _correct _policies. His

failures are not just overlooked. They are rewarded. Then again, now that I think about it, when Cuomo appeared on television to play the role of a competent and thoughtful leader, that was

a hell of an acting job. So, maybe he deserves an Emmy after all.