Suspension is not enough to punish CNN “Prime Time” host Chris Cuomo for his crimes against responsible journalism. If CNN wants to be taken seriously as a legitimate news outlet, it must fire Cuomo and be rid of him once and for all. Anything short of dismissal would amount to blatant hypocrisy for a news network that spends an inordinate amount of on-air time sniping at Fox News for the ways its commentators moonlight as shills for former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
In Cuomo’s case, the offenses were multiple and egregious as he intervened to help his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, fend off allegations that he sexually harassed and abused his female staffers.
Chris Cuomo had previously violated the conflict-of-interest boundaries of responsible journalism when he hosted his brother live for interview sessions as New York’s pandemic deaths and hospitalizations overwhelmed the state’s resources in 2020. The governor’s calm and credible presentation of facts drew global viewership and came in sharp contrast to the often incoherent daily misinformation briefings by Trump during that time.
CNN allowed the brother-to-brother sessions to carry on too long by any objective standard. It emerged months later that the governor was, in fact, skewing statistics about nursing home deaths in New York to sustain his image as a bold crisis manager. And Chris Cuomo did everything he could to help advance that undeserved image.
Months later, some of the governor’s female staffers began alleging that he had engaged in unwanted touching and sexually laced banter. Chris Cuomo later acknowledged that he had served at arm’s length to help his brother weather that storm. But he lied about the extent of that involvement.
On Monday, thousands of pages of evidence and sworn testimony became publicly available, making clear that the CNN host didn’t just offer brotherly moral support, as he had suggested. Chris Cuomo worked actively to help his brother’s administration undermine the credibility of the governor’s accusers. Far worse, the CNN host offered to help ask around about the investigations of other journalists. He then fed that information to the governor’s staffers so they could have ready responses before hot scoops broke publicly. The effect was to dull the impact of any breaking news by helping the governor’s office spin the story and, thus, minimize the political fallout. Gov. Cuomo resigned in August.
Legitimate journalists, including commentators and hosts, simply do not operate that way. Recusal is supposed to be the automatic and immediate response the moment journalists and their editors recognize a potential conflict of interest. Anything short of that undermines the reputation not just of the journalist but of the entire profession. Chris Cuomo crossed the line in so many egregious ways as to render himself irredeemable in this profession. CNN must give him the permanent boot.
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