Battenfeld: Hey CNN, take embarrassing Chris Cuomo off the air

CNN has to do the right thing and remove Chris Cuomo from its prime time lineup.

It’s more than awkward — it’s unethical to have your supposed “journalist” anchor advise his brother Andrew on how to spin the growing sexual harassment scandal facing the New York governor. He’s like a bad case of COVID that just won’t go away.

Now that the New York attorney general has outlined the illegal behavior of Cuomo — even an attempt to retaliate against a witness — it’s more important than ever for the network to sever ties with Chris.

Cuomo, unable to cover the biggest story of the day, ignored his brother’s scandal during his show on Tuesday night.

“We’re focused on COVID here,” he said unconvincingly.

Yeah, right.

Chris Cuomo can’t have it both ways. He can’t profess to be a news journalist on one hand and on the other hand put his family first and act as a strategist when it comes to his older brother.

CNN did have wall-to-wall coverage of the Andrew Cuomo scandal using anchors and reporters, which only made the gaping hole during Chris Cuomo’s show all the more noticeable.

Cuomo needs to go, be with his brother if that’s what he wants, but step down from all CNN duties. If he wants to be on the network he should be billed as a “family strategist,” not a supposedly objective journalist.

CNN should have told Cuomo to go months ago, when his heavy involvement in his brother’s defense first became clear.

But it’s unclear if they have the guts to part ways with Cuomo now.

If it’s just a ratings decision, that’s shameful. At least one CNN staffer has had enough of Chris, telling Buzzfeed that keeping him on the air is a “disgrace to journalism.” But network honchos have kept mum and obviously don’t share that view. CNN President Jeff Zucker “has made it clear that he has Chris’s back no matter what,” according to one report.

The ethical lapse of keeping Cuomo on the air is even more blatant considering the New York attorney general’s report again cited cases of the CNN personality keeping in touch with his brother and advising him.

Andrew Cuomo even used his brother’s exact language to defend himself at one point, blaming “cancel culture” for the calls on him to resign.

Now that President Biden has said Andrew Cuomo should resign, it’s doubtful he will continue using that as a defense. But his denial of the charges against him indicate he’s going to take his brother’s advice and fight for as long as he can.

That makes it even more imperative that CNN show some guts and at least put Chris Cuomo on sabbatical while the scandal continues to heat up.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3A2MXDs