Maybe it’s time for CNN to fire him instead. How’s that?
A “leave of absence” won’t work because, as Cuomo has made painfully clear, he intends to keep advising his brother. The only thing he regrets about the latest embarrassment is that he delivered his advice on a conference call, where there were witnesses to it who could leak it to the press and humiliate him and CNN.
So if he took a “leave of absence” to advise Andrew full-time, when should that leave of absence end? After the New York legislature and the state AG have finished their investigations into Andrew’s many scandals? That won’t work because, as I say, Chris will just go on advising him on other matters that end up being covered on CNN.
I put my family first and my job second, he told his viewers unapologetically last week. He has every right. Just like CNN has every right to no longer employ him because he refuses to behave ethically.
"If Chris Cuomo wants to call into strategy sessions with his brother's aides, shouldn't he take a leave of absence from CNN?" Here's our conversation about the Cuomo brothers from today's @ReliableSources pic.twitter.com/6nk0wbaFGN
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 23, 2021
“Multiple CNN staffers said they were bothered by Cuomo’s conduct and the violation of traditional journalistic standards,” CNN’s own Oliver Darcy reported last week. Brian Stelter’s suggestion of a leave of absence in the clip is in line with that, a creditable bit of public accounting for a colleague who did wrong but also not a workable solution to the problem. CNN staffers who were “bothered” by what Cuomo did could have demanded that the network sanction him, or they could have given executives a black eye by complaining off the record to other media outlets. But there hasn’t been much of that. A fleeting reference to a “leave of absence” on Stelter’s show and some on-background whispering to Darcy about how disappointed everyone is seems to be the extent of grief Cuomo’s going to get from his own network.
No wonder he behave as though he has impunity. It’s because he does.
The Boston Herald utters the magic words: Cuomo must go. Both Cuomos, really. But in this case they mean Chris.
CNN needs to do the right thing and can Cuomo. They’ve already waited too long.
Without being too preachy ourselves, reporting the news takes skill, effort, sources, brevity and ethics. All of us in the industry suffer when one member, especially a notable one, crosses the line. Chris Cuomo must have known the moment he was on the phone with his brother’s handlers that he had sinned.
How can he ever stand before a journalism class and pretend to be a journalist?
And how can CNN say Chris Cuomo isn’t an influence, to some degree, in the hallways and the network newsroom? Who’s stopping him from reviewing copy for another show?
The lines between celebrity and journalism have long been blurred. Now Chris Cuomo is wiping mud on the screen. There’s no question he’s forcing everyone else in the industry to work harder today to guard against any slip.
Maybe Chris shouldn’t be the only journalist fired. “I had conversations with my brother. I always have conversations with my brother because he’s my brother and he’s my best friend,” Andrew Cuomo said today when asked about Chris advising him — before adding, “But I talk to journalists about situations all the time and they tell me their thoughts and their advice.”
Other journalists too, huh? Do tell.
I’ll leave you with Joe Concha joining the “no mo’ Cuomo” bandwagon on Fox today.
"Get out of TV because he is not an anchor, Chris Cuomo is not, he is an activist."@JoeConchaTV weighed in on the Chris Cuomo scandal, telling the CNN anchor to "go work for your brother then." pic.twitter.com/6GAkpNhvhg
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 24, 2021
