CNN Suspends Chris Cuomo After New Details on Help He Gave His Brother

The cable news network’s top-rated anchor was an enthusiastic adviser to Andrew Cuomo in the last 18 months of his governorship.

The CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, brother of the former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo, was placed on indefinite suspension on Tuesday.

The CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, brother of the former New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo, was placed on indefinite suspension on Tuesday.Credit...Krista Schlueter for The New York Times

The star CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was suspended indefinitely by the network on Tuesday after new details emerged about his efforts to assist his brother, Andrew M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, as he faced a cascade of sexual harassment accusations that led to the governor’s resignation.

Chris Cuomo had previously apologized for advising Andrew Cuomo’s senior political aides — a breach of traditional barriers between journalists and lawmakers — but thousands of pages of new evidence released on Monday by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, revealed that the anchor’s role had been more intimate and involved than previously known.

“The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions,” CNN said in a statement on Tuesday.

“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly,” the network said. “But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second. However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew.”

“As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation,” the network said.

In scores of emails and text messages between the television host and his brother’s inner circle, Chris Cuomo repeatedly offered advice — “Please let me help with the prep,” he texted a senior aide in March — and made efforts to track down the status of pending articles at other news outlets, including Politico and The New Yorker, that concerned allegations of sexual harassment by Andrew Cuomo.

At one point, Andrew Cuomo’s former top aide, Melissa DeRosa, asked the anchor if he could check his “sources” about a rumor that Politico was working on an article that included additional accusations. “On it,” Chris Cuomo responded.

Chris Cuomo’s entanglement with the last 18 months of his brother’s governorship has proved a slow-moving headache for CNN, which had stood by its top-rated anchor even as a drip of uncomfortable revelations raised questions about the network’s adherence to journalistic standards.

Jeff Zucker, CNN’s president, supported Mr. Cuomo for months, declining to discipline him even after reports showed that the anchor had conferred in strategy sessions with his brother’s political team, a breach of basic reportorial conduct.

But this week presented a harsher set of facts for Mr. Zucker as he weighed the fate of his 9 p.m. host.

Ms. James’s report included a text from Mr. Cuomo to Ms. DeRosa sent a few days after a woman, Anna Ruch, told The New York Times that Andrew Cuomo had made an unwanted advance toward her at a wedding in New York City. “I have a lead on the wedding girl,” the anchor wrote in the text.

Chris Cuomo later told investigators that he had heard from a friend that “maybe she had been put up to it,” referring to Ms. Ruch’s allegation. He said that Andrew Cuomo’s aides disavowed him of that notion and that he set his friend’s claim aside. “So that’s that,” he said.

Tiffany Hsu contributed reporting.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4975871&forum_id=2#43535246)

Yes, Fredo, we understand that you would rather help your rat of a brother rather than maintain any semblance of journalistic integrity or professionalism

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4975871&forum_id=2#43537222)

At one point, Andrew Cuomo’s former top aide, Melissa DeRosa, asked the anchor if he could check his “sources” about a rumor that Politico was working on an article that included additional accusations. “On it,” Chris Cuomo responded.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4975871&forum_id=2#43537302)

Normally ethical violations are predicated on what is at base some sort of dishonesty or deception: you held yourself out, explicitly or implicitly, as being or doing one thing, but then secretly did another. A congressman taking secret bribes from a businessman in order to enact or repeal regulation beneficial to the business is corruption; that same congressman telling an auditorium full of potential donors "vote for me because I'll [repeal or enact the same set of regulations, which will benefit your business]" is expected and normal.

And the "his conduct is attributable to CNN and makes CNN look biased" argument is conclusory bullshit. He wasn't acting on behalf of CNN and no one really thinks he was; he was acting solely in his brother's best interests.

Honestly, his gay little "Chris 'n Andy" segments where he'd have his brother on the show and they'd yuck-yuck it up atop the CNN banner was a lot closer to a real ethics problem.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4975871&forum_id=2#43537471)