The Fourth Estate holds a hallowed place in the American pantheon. Thomas Jefferson averred that “Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Therefore, criticizing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is both a fair and legitimate journalistic pursuit.
But perpetuating vile stereotypes about the governor’s ethnicity is not.
In his March 21 letter, “A reminder of a time long past,” a reader wondered, “With his bizarre shawl, is Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo channeling the late Genovese crime boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante, who feigned insanity to fend off the feds?”
Sadly, media opinion makers — on both the left and right — are also doubling down on such repugnant anti-Italian tropes.
Bill Maher, who once described Italians with a slur about the movie My Cousin Vinny on national television, recently chortled when a guest likened Cuomo to a greasy-haired mobster. On Tucker Carlson Tonight, the smirking Fox News host said that Cuomo “talks like he’s in ‘Goodfellas.’ He literally looks like he is doing some sort of Mafia impersonation.” Carlson’s guest, Seth Barron, managing editor of The American Mind, then disparaged former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.
The time has come to fully embrace that most American of maxims first enunciated by Filippo Mazzei — an Italian physician, scholar and diplomat — in the Virginia Gazette in 1774 (and later paraphrased in the Declaration of Independence in 1776): “All men are created equal.” – RAI
[Published in Long Island’s Newsday, 25 March 2021]
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