Cuomo cannot report on Cuomo

NEW YORK — For CNN, last spring’s prime-time banter between Chris Cuomo and his older brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, looks worse in hindsight as the governor’s administration is questioned about its role in failing to disclose the true number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths.

CNN is covering that story, but not on Chris Cuomo’s show. The network said it had reinstated a prohibition on Cuomo interviewing or doing stories about his brother that it had temporarily lifted.

The brothers were both in the spotlight last March. Chris Cuomo caught COVID-19 and continued anchoring his show from his basement, while the governor dealt with New York’s hellish days as the nation’s early coronavirus epicenter. Andrew Cuomo’s neardaily briefing was widely televised and, to some viewers, embraced as a counterpoint to those held by former President Donald Trump.

Nine times between March 19 and June 24, 2020, the governor appeared on his brother’s show. The trash-talking and brotherly love between the two Italians from Queens was fun if occasionally cheesy.

“I found these interviews to be very entertaining, and perhaps Chris could ask questions of his brother that other people can’t,”î said Roy Gutterman, a media law professor at Syracuse University. “But from the very beginning, I thought it was wildly inappropriate.”

“It’s Journalism 101,î” he said. “We tell our students you shouldn’t interview your family and friends.”î