When the former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, fell out of favor after more than a dozen complaints of sexual abuse against him, the bad streak spread to domino effect over his entire family. Within the tidal wave of bad news for the Cuomo came the dismissal of Chris Cuomo, the youngest of the brothers, from the CNN news network where he served as one of the main anchors for having been directly involved in the defense of his brother while he tried to hold on to his position as governor.
More than three months after his dismissal, the journalist has initiated legal action against the news network asking that a mediator determine whether he is entitled to a $125 million reward claiming that his dismissal was illegal because “his bosses knew perfectly well that he was advising his brother, Andrew Cuomo”, and even suggests that those same chiefs also offered advice to the then governor on how to manage his public image following the denunciations.
“It should be obvious at this point that Chris Cuomo didn't lie to CNN about his collaboration with his brother. Moreover, as I have been clear from the research conducted by Warner Media (the company that owns CNN), about which there is little information, the most senior CNN executives not only knew what Chris Cuomo was doing but that they actively helped the governor, both through Chris and directly,” he told the press. Bryan Freedman, lawyer for Chris Cuomo.
On December 4, Cuomo was fired from CNN by Jeff Zucker, president of the news network. Since then, Zucker and Allison Gollust, one of its main collaborators, have been disassociated from the company for inappropriate conduct that is not linked to the Cuomo case.
In the lawsuit, Cuomo alleges that his former employer has a long-standing established pattern in which he “selectively applies company policies under cynical calculations of public perception.”
In addition, the lawsuit highlights that other anchors of the news network were involved in similar situations and were not fired. So he classifies his dismissal as the “epitome of hypocrisy”.
“CNN's habit of making exceptions to the rules started from the top, with former network president Jeff Zucker and former marketing director Allison Gollust having a secret extramarital affair,” the lawsuit said, and then delving into the case of host Don Lemon, accused of maintaining contact with text messages with Jussie Smollett, accused of hate crimes, and that of host Jake Tapper, who tried to convince Republican Sean Parnell not to go against Conor Lamb. Neither Lemon nor Tapper were fired for these incidents.
During the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, Cuomo interviewed his brother who was the governor of New York nine times, even though it was CNN's policy that one brother could not interview the other. According to the demand, since these interviews worked well for the ratings, at the request of the network's managers they were conducted. The court papers go so far as to say that CNN even tried to convince Governor Cuomo not to appear on other news networks and to speak exclusively with his brother on CNN.
“The standards of the chain were modified in a calculated way with the ratings in mind. When those practices were called into question, then Chris was the scapegoat,” Freedman said.
The $125 million figure is the lawyer's calculation of the money Cuomo could have earned in his career if CNN hadn't fired him, causing an indelible stain on his reputation as a journalist.
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