Pretty much out of curiosity I watched Chris Cuomo’s show last night to see how it would be handled. And he started right off addressing the situation, apologizing for what he admitted was a mistake. He agreed that it was a lapse in judgement that created a problem for CNN and his co-workers. He said unequivocally that it would not happen again and then moved on to his show. I think that was the right approach and will personally give the benefit of the doubt that it was heartfelt.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kZTPzNFj8
Uh, it’s called conflict of interest. An ostensible news reporter isn’t supposed to be giving advice to a politician in order to get out of a possible criminal indictment. The fact that he’s his brother doesn’t ameliorate the situation, it makes it worse. It means Chris should have already been keeping arm’s length from his brother.
Just because Sean Hannity was coaching Trump, that doesn’t mean people in the reality-based community should do it.
And Chris openly and honestly told his viewers he couldn’t cover it because Andrew’s his brother. So I don’t see where there’s any violation of principle there.
Yeah, but is Chris giving orders to the Governor’s subordinates? I mean, look at the phrasing used. No direct quotes, just broad characterization.
“Hey, Chris, thanks for taking the call…”
“Yeah, of course. Andy, this is cancel culture bullshit, man, you gotta fight this.”
“Thanks, bro. Listen, my strategy team’s on the line…”
And making a big deal that both siblings used the same 2-word phrase? FFS, every politician and talking head on TV has ‘cancel culture’ as their shorthand for ‘I’m being blamed for shit I wanted to get away with’. It’s like ‘Al Gore claimed he invented the internet’1: Just because it’s not true doesn’t mean it isn’t burned into their psyche as a ‘fact’.
We’re once again getting reporting-by-implication, and clickbait attempts to push this into something it might not be.
Or keeping arm’s length from the reporting, which he was trying to do. The ‘conflict of interest’ only comes in when you try to be involved in both. Cuomo was not trying to be involved in the coverage.
People in the reality-based community should understand that in reality, if someone’s gonna cut off their brother during a crisis because of optics, then that person’s probably not someone you should trust in the first place. No journalist is unbiased on any story. They have opinions, and values, and those things creep into the coverage. People who claim to be unbiased are lying to you. Honest journalists acknowledge their bias so the reader/viewer can take that into account, and work to minimize its impact.
Cuomo acknowledged his inability to cover the story. He’s addressed his involvement and the mistakes he made with it.
@castor_troy has a point about an hour of CNN’s coverage that won’t touch this story, but at the same time… there really haven’t been a whole lot of developments other than ‘there’s an investigation now’ and ‘look! innuendo and unfounded accusations about COVID vaccination impropriety!’ for Chris to not cover.
If this goes to impeachment, or we get a trial of some other sort when the investigations conclude, that’ll be something to report, but until then… look, even TPM, which seems to get particularly breathless over any scandal, has a piece a week ago about the accusers being subpoenaed, and then another OMG, Cuomo signed a book deal! piece, which isn’t about the matter Chris Cuomo can’t cover, and then… back to April 1st, a full month and a half of nothing.
So it’s not like CNN viewers have missed a whole lot on Chris Cuomo’s show. And CNN had to expect this would happen when they gave him his own show. They could just as easily be subbing in a guest host on nights when all hell breaks loose. Or, you know, they could use Cuomo’s show as an hour where other things that matter get covered. It’s CNN. Nobody tunes in for an hour. They leave it on in the background so they can get a 25-year old audio clip of James Earl Jones saying ‘This… is CNN.’
Which is still pretty much the best thing on CNN.
1. Gore’s claim—which was accurate—was that he’d been instrumental in passing legislation that helped the internet become what it was in 2000.
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So if Chris & Andrew wanted to one-on-one FaceTime each other for 45 minutes 3 times a week …an if Chris would open each call with "OK … here’s your top 3 talking point for the next 5 days… " it would still just be two brothers bending each other’s ear, calling each other out, giving each other commonsense advice… not heinous …
The participation with the team of staff & lawyers in strategic planning and crafting specific communication outlines & scripts … not a good look … and rather smarmy & journalistically … questionable
And if some how there was volunteering of “insider info” … like "just a heads up … xyz scoop is going to run tomorrow " well that should be a career buster…
A CNN spokesperson told TPM in an emailed statement that Chris Cuomo “has not been involved in CNN’s extensive coverage of the allegations” against his brother “on air or behind the scenes,” noting that the anchor himself admitted on his show that he could not cover the scandal objectively
“However, it was inappropriate to engage in conversations that included members of the Governor’s staff, which Chris acknowledges,” the spokesperson said. “He will not participate in such conversations going forward.”
Uno ) if he knew that he couldn’t objectively cover that story, then he should’ve taken time away and came back when ready. That he told viewers one thing and did another, leaves him open to getting sacked (even if the advice was given during off hours).
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Dos ) it doesn’t matter if either Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson do the same, because it’s expected from them and it’s expected that Fox News supervisors will look the other way. The supervisors shouldn’t, because it’s clear that the worse is coming with those three, but this isn’t a perfect world.
Cuomo won’t get sacked, but it’s clear that he’s on thin ice.
Did he, though? He said he couldn’t cover the story. He never told his viewers ‘and I’m not going to talk to my brother about his problems’.
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If Chris Cuomo hasn’t been covering the Andrew Cuomo controversies then what he does on his own time is his business. A brother has a right to be a brother. Part of being a family member is helping to clean up the messes of your other family members.
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if he had taken a leave of absence, then he has maybe no problems. He’s still an active CNN employee and he gave advice to his brother, with Andy Cuomo’s aides present.
That raises the question of who does he work for, CNN or Albany.
He’s again skating and within reason, i don’t have a big problem with that.
leaving these here
“However, it was inappropriate to engage in conversations that included members of the Governor’s staff, which Chris acknowledges,” the spokesperson said. “He will not participate in such conversations going forward.”
The new revelations mark a second instance of Chris Cuomo’s involvement in one of his brother’s scandals, the first one being the fact that he was one of the governor’s family members who privately received VIP access to COVID-19 tests early in the pandemic.
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Not if he wasn’t paid by his brother or his brother’s aides. And no, just being an active CNN employee doesn’t mean he’s misrepresented himself to his viewers. At no point has he told them he’s not going to talk to his brother. At no point has he tried to claim he’s not Andrew Cuomo’s brother, or in any way conveyed that theirs is a distant, aloof relationship.
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It doesn’t matter if the advice was free, he put himself in a news story.
Talking to him is not the issue and if he had did it alone, then the public wouldn’t quickly know about this.
He gave advice to his brother, with his brother’s aides present.
It would be understandable if Cuomo had taken a leave of absence and defended his own brother, on his time. He chose to have it both ways and he put his employer in a bind.
CNN knows that a similar or newer issue is going to happen again and depending on the severity, they’re going to have to address it.
I’m looking forward to seeing what their response is, when the person isn’t a Cuomo or connected to a well known political family.
Uh yeah, I mean… how is this news?
He rallied to a family member, and opined on how to talk - so the fuck what? (really does anyone think that seriously Brother Cuomo the Elder really heard something from his brother that in any way changed Brother Cuomo the Elder’s response in any way at all…? Seriously?)
[and mind you, I don’t even like either of them]
How is it over the line?
He opined.
Does anyone really think that somehow just because his younger Bro is on CNN that somehow this advice was something like majorly insightful? Or in any way shape or form changed how the Elder Bro was going to respond?
Come on, it’s a tempest in a teapot (the younger Bro opining to older Bro, not the substantive scandal).
Younger Bro is a damn talking head, he’s not a fucking priest or lawyer or whatever.
That seems plausible, more plausible than directly organizing the busses. Do you have a link or remember which organization it was? I remember seeing the original allegation that she had funded the busses and then seeing further reporting that those allegations were unsubstantiated. And from there on out it was all “fact checker” squid ink
He’s a talking head, not a damn lawyer for God’s sake. Jesus, you’re erecting some kind of fairy tale castle concept here.
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do you have a problem with pundits and journalists giving advice to family members or close friends, who are also high ranking politicians?
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A shade too much rationalizing here.
So what? The fact that he did something that got reported on does not, as you asserted, ‘raise the question of who does he work for, CNN or Albany’. He wasn’t working for Andrew, he was being his brother.
No, he didn’t. He didn’t defend his brother. He gave his brother some advice. Chris Cuomo hasn’t come out and made any public defense of his brother. He has not put CNN in any bind. He has said quite clearly that he’s not going to be involved in their coverage, and he’s made a statement now saying that talking to his brother while Andrew’s lawyers and aides was present was a mistake.
If that person has taken reasonable steps to make sure they’re not involved in or influencing CNN’s coverage of the story, then I hope their reaction is ‘so what?’
No rationalizing at all. If you expect your journalists to completely sever themselves from all human empathy, you deserve to have monsters telling you lies in order to get ratings, and that’s exactly what you’ll get.
Journalists are human beings. They are never unbiased. Nobody is.
I heard about this yesterday on a NYC radio station and I had the same thought. Family is always first (haven’t the T****s proven this beyond a reasonable doubt???).
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