CUOMO BRO HAD TO GO
Chris Cuomo’s days of sanctimoniously yet incoherently lecturing Americans on CNN about everything from vaccines to abortions are over.
The news broke Saturday evening that the ratingschallenged news-chat network had fired Chris after he was busted (via texts) over his at-best-unethical efforts to aid his brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is likewise facing his own assortment of scandals, some of which may be criminal.
CNN, the “most trusted name in news,” said in a statement, “We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately.”
To make matters worse for the man many refer to as “Fredo” (after the Corleones’ runt-of-the-litter son in The Godfather), the statement also hinted at new problems emerging for the ex-host.
“While in the process of that review,” the statement added, rather vaguely, “additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.”
It didn’t take long for the “additional information” to emerge. According to The New York Times, “On Wednesday, Debra S. Katz, a prominent employment lawyer, informed CNN of a client with an allegation of sexual misconduct against Chris Cuomo.”
In other words, Fredo’s sneaky decision to help his older brother discredit sexual harassment allegations might be the least of his worries. It appears these charges date back to his days as a “correspondent” for ABC “News.”
As embarrassing and revealing as this week has been for the faux journalist, plenty of other public figures are also taking well-deserved hits to their reputation from this controversy.
Let’s start with NBC’s Katy Tur. Detailed records released by the New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office included snarky text messages from a variety of Cuomo insiders.
In one back-and-forth, Democrat strategist Lis Smith bragged to Cuomo’s team that Tur was regurgitating her “spin” “live” on the air, like a parrot.
To make matters even more humiliating for Tur, Smith couldn’t even get the journalist’s network correct. “Like verbatim on cnn,” Smith texted. It is one thing to be perceived as a useful idiot by Democrats, but Smith’s texts about propagandist Katy Tur remove all doubt. Next up is Jeffrey Toobin. The night Cuomo’s suspension was announced on CNN, Anderson Cooper had to step in. Filling the disgraced anchor’s prime time spot was awkward enough. But to really amp up the cringe, Anderson addressed the suspension in a segment in which he was found himself sitting at a desk with legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
If there was ever a moment that perfectly summed up the current fallen state of CNN – both its corruption and its cluelessness — it might have been this one.
Anderson could have at least leaned into the absurdity and asked for Toobin’s thoughts on the suspension. After all, who better to comment on suspensions than a guy who returned from his own eight-month suspension in June?
When Toobin was allowed back on CNN after his own scandal, plenty of critics assumed that this meant the network had officially embraced the concept of zero standards for the “talent.” (All the networks used to have “moral-turpitude” clauses in their employees’ contracts, but that’s so 20th century.)
Now we know that while the bar is pretty low, CNN does have a bar. It is somewhere below masturbating on a Zoom call, yet above doing oppo research to try to discredit victims of sexual harassment. Good to know.
Naturally, conservatives on Twitter went wild when they saw a wide-eyed Toobin appear next to a very uncomfortable Anderson Cooper. The producers at CNN either have no sense of irony or they have a great sense of humor. I’d put my money on the former.
Perhaps the person who should be most embarrassed by this ordeal is CNN’s CEO Jeff Zucker. This scandal is only one of several recent mortifying moments for the cable news channel. In fact, media magnate and Liberty Media’s chairman John Malone recently expressed his own dissatisfaction with the network that he now has a financial stake in.
While appearing on CNBC, Malone said, “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.”
Actual journalists? On CNN? Uh-oh! Say it ain’t so….
Translation: Chris Cuomo is not the only “talent” who should be worried at CNN.
Maybe they are.