CNN admitted to the Washington Post on Tuesday that it made an “exception” to the rule against primetime presenter Chris Cuomo interviewing his older brother Andrew, the New York governor, due to the “extraordinary” first months of the coronavirus pandemic. .
“The first months of the pandemic crisis were an extraordinary time,” a spokesman for the network told media columnist Erik Wemple. “We felt that Chris talking to his brother about the challenges faced by millions of American families was of significant human interest. As a result, we made an exception to a rule that we have in place since 2013 that prevents Chris from interviewing and covering his brother, and this rule remains in effect today. CNN has covered the news extensively around Governor Cuomo. “
Wemple, who focuses on cable news, criticized the statement as an “expression of the problem itself”.
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“You cannot override a rule when your star anchor’s brother is flying high, only to invoke it in times of scandal. You just can’t,” wrote Wemple.
“Now the rule is back, conveniently at a time when the governor is being beaten for dealing with this tragedy,” Fox News “MediaBuzz” host Howard Kurtz told America’s Newsroom on Wednesday.
While old Cuomo is engulfed on charges that he covered up deaths from coronavirus in New York state nursing homes by federal officials, some media critics are reexamining the ethics of Chris Cuomo’s admittedly non-objective “interviews” with his brother in last year.
Among them is Wemple, who noted that young Cuomo missed his brother’s press conference on Monday about the growing scandal.
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“Perhaps this should not be a surprise: Chris Cuomo and Andrew Cuomo are brothers, and journalists cannot reliably cover their brothers,” wrote Wemple.
Fox News contacted CNN several times for an explanation last year, including last week. Asked again about his admission to Wemple about his Cuomo “rule” interviewing his brother, CNN spokesmen did not respond.
The Cuomos joked about their mother, teased each other and even engaged in comedies during the governor’s 10 appearances on his brother’s program last year. While they also discussed emergency equipment and serious measures to combat the virus, which young Cuomo picked up and recovered from last year, there was no mistaking that for serious journalism.
“I am impressed with what you did. And, most importantly, I am impressed with how you did it,” said Chris Cuomo to his brother about his work on the pandemic.
Some media outlets have long criticized the news network for allowing family members to chat happily on the air, but their exchanges are not always criticized. In fact, the entertainment media loved their interaction; NBC’s TODAY was enthusiastic about them providing “comic relief during a difficult time.”
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The compliment didn’t just come from the entertainment media. Washington Post liberal media columnist Margaret Sullivan called the Cuomos “surprisingly addictive viewing” last April, saying that one of her “millennial children” would send a message to her when her friendly interviews took place. While Sullivan cited people who noted the clear conflict of interest, she concluded that it was “quite a harmless thing”.
“I could watch the fraternal joke between Cuomo’s [sic], all day, “tweeted pro-Biden Republican liberal commentator Ana Navarro in April.
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Other network personalities were also enthusiastic about Andrew Cuomo’s work. CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter thanked him for giving people “hope, but not false hope”, and even said that he would pass on one of Cuomo’s criticisms of enduring hardship for his own children. Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC, a credible Democratic sycophant, said Cuomo was “honest, direct, brave” and “one of the heroes” in the fight against the virus.