Andrew Cuomo: Spitzer Wannabe

It’s also well-known that Cuomo is a liberal. The Democratic attorney general was the 2002 Liberal Party candidate for governor of New York.

But curiously, The New York Times, a paper that knows Cuomo well (his father is former Democratic New York governor Mario Cuomo) left out his party and the liberal designation in a June 10 story about his expanding investigation.

“But they [new regulations] do nothing to address a problem that many education officials say may have greater consequences – more students relying on private loans, which are so unregulated that Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York recently called them the Wild West of lending,” wrote Diana Jean Schemo in the Times.

The way she put it made it sound like he’s some sort of detached expert, when he’s actually the one making accusations against lenders and college officials and threatening to sue universities.

Schemo, like many other reporters, did not include any critic of regulation or explanation of the benefits private lenders bring to the student loan program.

“There is a lack of recognition of value that private sector companies bring to the federal student loan system: technology, efficency, innovation, all of these things have dramatically improved the student loan program,” Bruns said.

The Times even gave Cuomo an adoring profile on May 18. The 1,948-word article credited Cuomo with revamping his image, calling him disciplined and cautious.

Reporter Michael Cooper wrote that Cuomo “is winning national accolades for exposing what he calls kickbacks in the student loan industry.”

Just like the Times left out the political leanings of Cuomo, the Times, The Washington Post and USA Today all wrote articles about the “scandal” and included the criticism of “consumer advocates” U.S. PIRG, but left out their agenda.

U.S. PIRG promotes heavy government regulation on many issues including global warming, pollution, “open spaces,” food safety, toy safety and health care.

On its site, the organization claims to have “stopped Congress from opening the Artic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling,” fought against logging and mining, and sued a salmon farm company for its pollution