Chris Cuomo crossed 'many' red lines by using journalistic street cred to help brother: Howard Kurtz
Fox News media analyst Howard Kurtz breaks down the growing pressure facing CNN to discipline anchor Chris Cuomo after texts show he investigated Andrew Cuomo's accusers.
CNN’s prominent female staffers have remained publicly silent on embattled host Chris Cuomo over his extensive involvement in defending his big brother amid his sexual harassment scandal.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, D., released transcripts and exhibits from her investigation into now-former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D, which include the CNN host’s sworn testimony to investigators, where he admitted to using his media industry connections to dig up information on his brother’s accusers and reporters trying to cover the scandal.
Alisyn Camerota, Brianna Keilar, Kate Bolduan are among the prominent women at CNN that have been silent about Chris Cuomo’s role in his brother’s sexual harassment scandal. (Getty Images)
Newly released evidence also included damning text messages in which Cuomo offered advice to the staff of his beleaguered big brother. The shocking batch of evidence indicates Cuomo crossed boundaries of journalism ethics but also misled CNN viewers when he claimed he didn’t contact reporters on the ex-governor’s behalf.
CNN’s lineup features multiple female anchors and reporters, but none have joined a laundry list of media industry figures to publicly call for the network to part ways with Cuomo.
Fox News Digital reached out to several prominent female CNN hosts and anchors but none were willing to comment on the record roughly 24 hours after the bombshell documents were released. Calls to fire Cuomo are growing, even among liberal media outlets, for his seeming ethical breaches and misleading remarks about the extent of his involvement in his brother's political operation.
CNN's primetime lineup is the only exclusively male one of the three major cable networks, consisting of Anderson Cooper, Cuomo, and Don Lemon. The liberal network also lost two high-profile female anchors who champion women empowerment this year, when Poppy Harlow stepped away to pursue a Master’s degree in law and Brooke Baldwin walked away from the network.
UltraViolet, a leading national gender-justice organization, called for CNN to immediately fire Chris Cuomo. (CNN)
CNN contributor Mary Katharine Ham did note on Twitter after linking to a Variety piece on Cuomo's latest woes, "How many stories like this are we up to now?"
Earlier this year, Cuomo was accused by former ABC News producer Shelley Ross of squeezing her backside in a 2005 incident at a party and telling her with "cocky arrogance" that he could do that because she was no longer his boss. Ross didn't call for Cuomo's firing, but she did request he use the platform of his show, the most-watched on CNN, to "study the impact of sexism, harassment and gender bias in the workplace, including his own, and then report on it."
CNN’s female voices didn’t publicly comment about Ross’ claims, either.
At the time, Fox News contributor Joe Concha said there was "nothing but downside" for the network's female hosts to address their "untouchable" colleague.
"Can't blame female hosts of CNN not speaking out," he told Fox News Digital. "The few women put on the air at CNN … aren't going to say a peep, because there's nothing but downside."
While CNN’s female staffer have stayed silent, UltraViolet, a leading national gender-justice organization, called for CNN to immediately fire Cuomo.
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CNN allowed Chris Cuomo to interview his brother multiple times during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Reports that Chris Cuomo not only joined strategy calls with his brother, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, on how to respond to the numerous sexual harassment allegations against him, but actively advised his brother to push back against the allegations, using his position at CNN to seek information on the accusers, are completely unacceptable. He should be fired immediately," UltraViolet said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"This wasn’t just brothers talking about their lives, or even about politics. This was a major network news anchor actively working to support the former Governor of New York in pushing back against sexual harassment allegations and denegrating survivors of abuse. Chris Cuomo leveraged his position as a CNN anchor to manipulate sources and seek information about his brother's accusers. This a severe breach of journalistic ethics," UltraViolet continued. "CNN should immediately sever ties with Chris Cuomo. Anything less is unacceptable, and further harms survivors of sexual abuse."
Fox News' Cortney O'Brien contributed to this report.