“People love it when you lose, they love dirty laundry.” — Don Henley
This didn’t take long. CNN suspended Chris Cuomo on Tuesday, Saturday night CNN announced that he would not be coming back. Washington Post:
The 348-page interview transcript and communications records released Monday as part of the state investigation showed that Chris Cuomo played a significant role in his brother’s rapid response operation, drafting up statements for his brother to read and weighing in on strategy debates.
Most significantly for his role at CNN, the documents showed that Cuomo leaned on his journalistic sources to glean information about forthcoming articles that could negatively impact his brother and his futile fight to keep the governorship.
“When asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out,” he told investigators, referring to the potential for additional women to accuse his brother of misconduct.
In particular, Cuomo called around to find out about the timing for an article published by New Yorker writer Ronan Farrow, though he didn’t call Farrow directly. When asked by investigators whether he had informed CNN management about his outreach regarding the Farrow article, he replied, “No, not specifically.” He argued that it was “business-as-usual” for a journalist to call peers regarding the timing of impending articles.
Cuomo had almost 1 million viewers a night, which is a remarkable situation for anybody to find themselves in. He said in a statement that this “hurts” and he thanked the team of people who worked on his show.
Two brothers in a very powerful New York family find themselves in early retirement, toppled from stellar careers. Cuomo took the risks he did, presumably knowing the risks. He got caught. His brother got caught. The real name of the game is don’t get caught. Ask Donald Trump and Jennifer Crumbley.
Cuomo is not taking the “shock firing” well and is reportedly “livid” according to the Daily Beast:
A source familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast the relationship between the cable network and the host became unsustainable for the long term, as it was problem after problem with Cuomo. In light of the falling out, Cuomo has retained public relations expert Ronn Torossian.
One CNN insider told The Daily Beast, “Finally. Chris was a toxic and distracting presence. The network did the right thing.”
The cable network initially did not discipline Cuomo, calling his relationship with the governor a “unique position” after it came to light that he helped draft his brother’s public statements and participated in strategy calls with the governor’s aides about how best to combat the mounting wave of pressure for Andrew to resign. Earlier this week, however, text messages released by New York’s attorney general showed that Cuomo asked his brother’s top aide Melissa DeRosa, “Please let me help with the prep.”
Cuomo previously claimed he “never misled anyone” but apologized on air for his involvement in his brother’s fight, saying it “will never happen again” and he “knows where the line is.” Zucker said Cuomo was “a human” who had simply “made a mistake.”
If he knew where the line was, he wouldn’t have crossed it in the first place. He must have done some egregious things to get fired. Networks are notably charitable, as illustrated by the Brian Williams and Jeffrey Toobin scandals. Most people expected this situation to be handled the same way.
He was pretty far over the line, just staying on when his brother got in trouble. That was when he should have been suspended for the duration.
They are freaking brothers! I imagine every instinct in Chris’ body was screaming at him to help his brother. That’s why he should have walled himself off from contact with him, and recused himself from any stories about that awful situation AND refrained from discussing it with any other journalists or political operatives. Basically, he should have conducted himself in a manner that ensure he’d learn about any developments the same way and at the same time as the rest of us. Instead, he chose to take advantage of being featured “talent” on a major network to prop up his brother who should have stepped aside long before he did. Chris Cuomo should have been fired already. Doing it on a Saturday night was a parting gift from CNN to him. Hardly anyone who isn’t a true news junkie will notice.
This still shows the great disparity between a legitimate news network and something like Fox News or OANN. How many times have the right-wing hosts been caught breaching what would normally be considered proper journalistic standards and yet not suffered anything more serious than a few nights off the network (along with a “planned vacation” excuse for the absence)?
But CNN or MSNBC? They barely give someone suspected of “crossing the line” any time to plead their case before they’re suspended and/or fired.