CNN has fired prime time anchor Chris Cuomo four days after “suspending” him and acknowledging “additional Information” had come up.
Sure….
Just four days after announcing that he would be indefinitely suspended from the network, CNN has terminated its star host Chris Cuomo following an investigation conducted by a law firm that it said had turned up “additional information” about him.
Cuomo was suspended by CNN on Tuesday, a day after documents released by New York Attorney General Letitia James showed that he was more extensively involved in helping to defend his brother, then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), against allegations of sexual misconduct than he had acknowledged — either publicly or to CNN management.
The network had said at the time that Cuomo’s suspension was “pending further evaluation,” without specifying how long that process would take or who would conduct it.
In a statement on Saturday evening, the network said that it had “retained a respected law firm” to review Cuomo’s involvement in his brother’s crisis-management efforts and that “in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.”
The network did not say what that “additional information” related to.
His firing completes a quick and shocking turnabout for the legendary Cuomo family. Early last year, the anchor and the governor — sons of three-term New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) — were lauded in some circles as heroes of the coronavirus pandemic for their jocular and reassuring joint appearances on CNN to discuss early responses to the coronavirus crisis. Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor in August after James, the state attorney general, reported that he had sexually harassed 11 women during his time in office.
It seemed for several months that Chris Cuomo, the host of CNN’s most-watched show, might weather the scandal — until the release of James’s extensive investigative documents this week. CNN president Jeff Zucker broke the news in a memo to employees on Saturday evening.
“Today, I let Chris Cuomo know that we are ending his employment at CNN,” he wrote. “It goes without saying that these decisions are not easy, and there are a lot of complex factors involved.”
Cuomo acknowledged his abrupt termination in a statement on Twitter.
“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,” he said. “So let me now say as disappointing as this is, I could not be more proud of the team at Cuomo Prime Time … I owe [the Cuomo Prime Time team] and will miss that group of special people who did really important work.”
Since his suspension, the 9 p.m. hour on CNN had been hosted by anchor Anderson Cooper, extending his normal 8 p.m. show. Next week, Cuomo’s time slot is scheduled to be filled by CNN Saturday morning host Michael Smerconish. But it had not yet settled on hosting plans beyond next week, and the network will now have a bigger task on hand finding a permanent 9 p.m. host.
Cuomo’s suspension led to a round of speculation about whether he would ultimately leave the network, but someone close to the situation told The Washington Post on Wednesday that Cuomo’s fate had not been decided and that the network would be guided by the results of “further evaluation.”
On his SiriusXM radio show Wednesday afternoon, Cuomo told listeners that he was “embarrassed” by the network’s decision to suspend him but promised to respect the network’s evaluation process. “I know they have a process that they think is important,” he said. “So, I’m not going to talk about this anymore than that.”
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 to the harassment allegations, drafting up statements for his brother to read and weighing in on strategy debates.
From the man himself:
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Family similarities.
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There’s no other way this could have ended.
But what do either of them do from here? They both soiled their chosen professions. Andrew was unlikeable and responsible for thousands of covid deaths. Chris was a hypocrite who used press connections to protect his brother. You can make a case against either of them getting hired for anything, and that’s even without considering the me-too story line. The only virtue in their resumes is that one of them protects his family. You can’t even stick them on a commission or give them a column. I just googled “Andrew Cuomo” and, no kidding, the first link was to Governor Kathy Hochul.Report
I think an indefinite suspension could have lasted 3 months or so if the #metoo thing hadn’t also happened.
“Are you still talking about that? His brother resigned. No more conflict of interest! I thought you cared about that sort of thing. Well, it’s impossible for him to do it anymore.”Report
They lie low for a year or two, living of interest from investments and family businesses. Chris writes a book that is his confession to being a bad boy in service of his brother. He goes on the speaking circuit, not quite apologizing. Three years hence he’s doing political commentary again on CNN but never anchors.
Andrew gets indicted by the NYAG for some sort of low grade impropriety. He pleads out, pays a fine and retires to run some or another company that pays him handsomely to do nothing.Report
Maybe they can go into a Family business together?Report
Uh-oh, spaghettios.
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“In a new statement, a spokesman for the fallen TV star threw his longtime *ally* CNN President Jeff Zucker under the bus”
Not an ally anymore…
Sometimes we need the complete meltdown of an alliance structure to illustrate what alliance structures ought to be.Report
Mark Zucker = Captain Louis RenaultReport
Fredo takes sides against the CNN family.Report
We already knew that Zucker knew some bad stuff and decided to give Chris a pass. You can have whatever views you want about that, but it was already out there. The current CNN line is that they now know, and didn’t know before, more bad stuff, and that Chris didn’t tell them about it before. It’s still not clear whether it was the “more bad stuff,” or Chris’s lack of candor, or some combination of both, that did him in. Or whether it was something else entirely. But handwaving that Zucker knew something is old news.Report
Well, apparently, CNN is responding to Cuomo’s statements with something to the effect of “Cuomo is lying and that sort of thing is exactly why we had to fire him.”Report
Tangentially related:
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Another way to look at it:
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Remember when Hannity pulled a loaded gun out on set…that was fun…
Cuomo should have went long ago, and just cause that Twitter account is paid to put out stuff I’m good with everyone listed there getting their share of invectiveReport
If we want journalistic freedom to remain high, we need a single worst-ever journalist.
And, that way, whenever someone points at any given journalist’s misdeeds, we can just point to that worst-ever guy and say “Well, what about him?”
And that way no one will ever have to be Al Frankened ever again.Report
Are the people who host shows in primetime on Fox News, CNN or MSNBC actually journalists?Report
Some by training or previous experience, but other than that, the ones who host news shows are supposed to be acting as journalists, and the ones who host opinion shows aren’t expected to.
Like the rest of America, I’ve never watched CNN outside of an airport, but I think Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper are news hosts, and Don Lemon hosts an opinion show. Looking over the schedule at MSNBC, it looks like it’s nearly all opinion. At FNC, it looks like it’s mostly news in the daytime, opinion at prime time.
I guess the question you’re getting at is, what was Cuomo supposed to be. He did news shows but during the Trump years (CNN’s best ratings era) he was host of an opinion show.Report
Seems most of these hosts want it both ways. Cuomo was a journalist up until the point his brother gave LoveGov a deeper meaning. Then, not so much.
But even the “newsier” hosts that you mentioned are pretty opinionated when they want to be. They’re not like a Hannity or Maddow – who are clearly there to spew partisan messaging – but it doesn’t take very long to know where they stand on the political spectrum.Report
Agreed. I think the conversation ties into the ongoing debate about internet publishing versus curating. It’s comfortable but irresponsible to hang around the middle, promoting your views but hiding behind some claim to neutrality. It still kills me that we’re expected to treat George Stephanopoulos as merely an observer. But Anderson Cooper is the one who breaks my heart. He’s really intelligent, and wanted to be a journalist. If we were going to avoid the mess we’re in, it would have been due to people like him charting a noble career path.Report
With media in private sector hands and the Fairness Doctrine gone, that noble career path is probably dead.Report
I grew up on This Week w David Brinkley and the George Will v Sam Donaldson dynamic. Nothing on Sunday morning (or anywhere else) remotely resembles that show and it’s a shame.Report
Agreed.Report
Trouble is, that show sucked too. They all did. The good old days are never as good as we remember.Report
I read your comment and thought it plausible. So I googled the show, and picked an episode from Nov 4, 1984, a few days before the election.
The show was actually better than I remembered. Brinkley/Donaldson/Will interview VP Bush through 3 blocks (starting around 20 minute mark). Tough questions asked and responded to respectfully. If today’s average show temperate is 98 degrees. This is a noticeably different breezy 72. .
No comparison between this show and what we see today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2eHn9wrJLMReport
If better than now is the standard, I don’t disagree. But I found them deeply unsatisfying then for a variety of reasons.Report
I found “Jane, you ignorant slut!” deeply satisfying.Report
True story: In our office, when a case goes to trial, we have a post-mortem at which the trial team, first- and second-chair, talk about the issues that arose and how they handled them. My female second-seat and I decided to do a point-counterpoint presentation, though we didn’t disagree about anything. (The only real difference was that when we discussed something ridiculous the other side did, which we both agreed was ridiculous, she was outraged — being young and all — and I was amused.)
At some point we tried to work in the “Jane, you ignorant slut” bit, but it fell flat because most of the audience was too young to remember it.Report
I actually HAVE watched CNN outside of airports….meh.
The golden age of news reporting, aka Dan Rather and prior, was never that good. Bias was evident then as well, all the while claiming neutrality. At least “news” nowadays has an admitted bias.Report
An aftershock:
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The thick plotzes:
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entitled jackasses. All of them. Good riddance.Report
Looks like Toobin was the only guy there who kept his hands to himself.
(I stole this joke)Report
concurrReport
So very many “open secrets”.
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