Honestly, this is among my favorite things: Public in-fighting between the rich and powerful. Folks who know the secrets of one another, airing dirty laundry, and chasing the kind of money that can bring down empires. Selling each other out for personal benefit.
Sign me up for those kind of battles every day. And in that it is happening at CNN and I am all the more interested.
Anyways, Chris Cuomo — former CNN talking head and BlueCheckBrigade member — has requested that an arbitrator award him $125 million for his firing from CNN. Cuomo alleges that his bosses knew that he advised his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, through his very public sexual allegations. He also heavily suggested they did the same thing.
“It should be obvious by now that Chris Cuomo did not lie to CNN about helping his brother,” Bryan Freedman, his lawyer, alleged. “In fact, as the limited information released from Warner Media’s investigation makes clear, CNN’s highest-level executives not only knew about Chris’ involvement in helping his brother but also actively assisted the governor, both through Chris and directly themselves.”
Cuomo did not stop there. Oh, no, not at all. He also pointed the finger at two former colleagues in his complaint.
He noted the hypocrisy of how CNN handled both Don Lemon and Jake Tapper, who were never disciplined for incidents seen as ‘ethical lapses’ … the ‘lapses’ included Lemon texting Jussie Smollett when the actor was accused (and since proven) of making false allegations of a racist attack. Tapper also “allegedly” offered advice to a politician.
“Network standards were changed in a calculated decision to boost ratings,” Freedman said. “When those practices were called into question, Chris was made the scapegoat.”
Cuomo, former CNN executive Jeff Zucker and his top deputy, Allison Gollust — the latter two were involved in an alleged entanglement that was not such a secret — have all been publicly terminated in the past three months.
In his allegations, Cuomo added that the CNN leadership not only knew of the relationship with his brother but that they demanded the interviews. He also tried to say that he and his brother had expressed reservations about them.
CNN has not commented on the filing. Neither did Zucker and Gollust.
