CNN has stated that they would not be disciplining their anchor, Chris Cuomo, for
consulting his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, regarding how to manage a
string of sexual misconduct allegations.
Nonetheless, Cuomo faces backlash from the journalism community for his
unprofessionalism. Tom Jones of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies wrote that the
CNN anchor’s conflict of interest with his brother finally blew up in the network’s face,
which was over a year in the making.
“The host of a primetime show on one of the country’s biggest and most influential cable
news networks is advising one of the most powerful and influential politicians in this
country on how to handle serious sexual misconduct allegations,” Jones wrote. “This is
highly inappropriate for a journalist.”
“I don’t even know where to start on all the problems with this. How do staffers at CNN
— especially women — feel about a powerful employee trying to help someone, even if
it is his brother, defuse and overcome allegations of disturbing sexual misbehavior?
How do the women who made these allegations feel about a high-profile cable news
network personality trying to help the man accused of such awful things? How about the
citizens of New York?”
After facing much public criticism for advising his brother with the allegations that he’s
deal with, Cuomo decided to address the elephant in the room. The New York Post
relayed the statement made by the anchor on last week’s broadcast regarding this
conflict of interest.
“This is no revelation. I have said it publicly, and I certainly have never hidden it. I can
be objective on just about any topic but not about my family,” Cuomo said.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
