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CNN Fires Chris Cuomo Over Role in Brother; Andrew Cuomo’s S*xual Scandal

Published

3 years ago

Dec 5, 2021.

CNN Fires Chris Cuomo Amid Inquiry into His Efforts to Aid His Brother

EKO HOT BLOG reports that popular media station CNN has dismissed star anchor Chris Cuomo on Saturday, capping off a remarkable fall for the network’s top-rated anchor amid an ongoing investigation into his attempts to help his brother, Andrew M. Cuomo, then-governor of New York, stave off sexual harassment allegations.

Mr. Cuomo had the support of CNN’s president, Jeff Zucker, until last month, and he faced no repercussions for his behind-the-scenes plotting with Andrew Cuomo’s political staffers, a violation of basic journalistic rules.

Chris Cuomo and his brother former NY Gov Cuomo

However, the host was suspended on Tuesday when the Fresh York attorney general published new evidence and text messages that suggested a more intimate and involved participation in his brother’s political activities than the network had previously said. CNN announced on Saturday that it had retained outside counsel to investigate Mr. Cuomo’s activities, indicating that the investigation had rapidly progressed to a more severe level.

“We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately,” CNN said in a statement. “While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.”

The network declined to elaborate on any new facts that had emerged.

Mr. Cuomo, the boisterous and occasionally confrontational presenter of CNN’s 9 p.m. hour, was at the pinnacle of a broadcast journalism career he had established outside of his famous political family. But it was his brother’s problems, who resigned as governor in August, that finally landed Mr. Cuomo in a dispute that led to his resignation.

“This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother,” Chris Cuomo said in a statement on Saturday. “So let me now say as disappointing as this is, I could not be more proud of the team at ‘Cuomo Prime Time’ and the work we did as CNN’s #1 show in the most competitive time slot.”

Documents disclosed on Nov. 29 indicated that the anchor provided guidance on Andrew Cuomo’s public remarks and made efforts to learn the status of pending pieces on the governor’s harassment charges at other news sites, including The New Yorker and Politico.

Mr. Zucker, who had been a staunch supporter of Mr. Cuomo, claiming at one point that the anchor was “human” and had “quite unusual circumstances,” notified the anchor on Saturday that he was being dismissed. “It goes without saying that these decisions are not easy, and there are many complicated issues at play,” Mr. Zucker said in a message to CNN employees.

The sight of a high-profile anchor coaching his powerful political brother in the midst of a controversy has long been a source of consternation for many CNN journalists, who privately expressed dissatisfaction with activities that, in their opinion, harmed the network’s reputation. The CNN anchor Jake Tapper went public with his concerns in May, telling The New York Times that his colleague had “put us in a bad spot,” adding, “I cannot imagine a world in which anybody in journalism thinks that that was appropriate.”

Even so, the timing of Mr. Cuomo’s firing, on a Saturday at 5 p.m., caught many members of the CNN newsroom off guard.

The network’s decision earlier in the week to suspend Mr. Cuomo had left open the possibility that he might return to the channel at a later date. CNN’s chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, speculated on air on Wednesday that it was “possible he’ll be back in January.”

The network said on Tuesday it would begin an internal review of Mr. Cuomo’s conduct. But its executives had not immediately planned to hire an outside law firm, according to a person familiar with the network’s internal decision-making process. That plan changed in recent days, and CNN declined on Saturday to identify the name of the law firm it had retained.

Mr. Cuomo has retained the public-relations executive Ronn Torossian, a veteran New York operator who is an ally of New York City’s mayor-elect, Eric Adams.

Before joining CNN, Mr. Cuomo spent years as an on-air correspondent, covering wildfires, shooting rampages and war zones, most prominently at ABC News. He was one of Mr. Zucker’s first major hires after he became CNN’s president in 2013. A morning show, “New Day,” was organized in part around Mr. Cuomo’s bombastic, fast-talking on-air personality.

The awkwardness of his relationship with Andrew Cuomo — who was among the most powerful Democratic politicians in the country — became apparent almost immediately: In 2013, the network was criticized after Chris Cuomo twice interviewed his brother on “New Day.”

CNN showed less concern about any ethical issues in 2020, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

By then, Mr. Cuomo had moved to prime-time, beating out other prominent hosts like Mr. Tapper for the coveted 9 p.m. slot. “Cuomo Prime Time” became CNN’s highest-rated hour, although it regularly attracted fewer viewers than competitors on Fox News and MSNBC.

As governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo was a leading national figure in the pandemic response. Chris Cuomo began interviewing him in prime time, and their teasing banter and emotional conversations became a hit with viewers. Ratings surged further after Chris Cuomo contracted the virus; he continued broadcasting, and interviewing his brother, from quarantine in the basement of his Long Island home. Mr. Zucker praised the segments for their “authenticity and relatability and vulnerability.”

“That’s what the brothers Cuomo are giving us right now,” Mr. Zucker told The Times in April 2020.

The next year, as Andrew Cuomo was facing a growing number of sexual harassment accusations, Chris Cuomo recused himself from reporting on the scandal, leaving a prime-time hole in CNN’s coverage of what was turning out to be a national news story.

At the same time, away from the anchor desk, Chris Cuomo was participating in strategy sessions with the governor’s top aides. It also emerged that Andrew Cuomo had arranged for his brother’s Covid tests to receive priority treatment by the state. CNN did not discipline Chris Cuomo, and at one point offered the anchor a leave of absence if he wished to more formally help his brother.

After Andrew Cuomo resigned, Chris Cuomo defended himself on the Aug. 16 episode of his program. “I’m not an adviser, I’m a brother,” the anchor said. “I never attacked nor encouraged anyone to attack any woman who came forward. I never made calls to the press about my brother’s situation.”

But the new batch of testimony and text messages suggested that Mr. Cuomo did function as an adviser and did reach out to journalists. “When asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out,” he told investigators.

On May 20, Mr. Cuomo began his CNN program by apologizing to viewers about his conversations with his brother’s political team, declaring himself “family first, job second.”

“Being a journalist, and a brother to a politician, is unique, and a unique challenge, and I have a unique responsibility to balance those roles,” Mr. Cuomo said then. “It’s not always easy.”

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