Nothing is more awkward than a media reporter trying to report on his or her own media outlet, and Brian Stelter looked very awkward on Saturday night reporting on Chris Cuomo’s sudden Saturday firing.
“Yes, Chris Cuomo, one of the most popular anchors at CNN, one of the best-known names in television news, Journalistic ethics and standards were violated. It was not once, but several times. And that’s ultimately what is the result of today’s news, Jim.”
Wait – that would mean that Stelter and his CNN Media Unit somehow missed the vast majority of those “many times.”
Stelter told Acosta that the firing was “a big surprise for a lot of people. I didn’t expect to be on with you this evening talking about this breaking news,” and he insisted there wasn’t a “fake suspension to take press off CNN.” And then an outside firm found something that was “found to be a serious breach of standards and practices.” But then, everyone following Cuomo has known that for months.
CNN continued its hypocritical, non-transparency. Stelter claimed “to be completely transparent with the audience, it says there’s additional information that also came to light sometime this week. We don’t know what that is. I’ve asked, there’s no answers coming on what that could be.”
Acosta wondered: “Do we know when this new information might be brought out to the public and will have a sense as to what this additional information was?”
“I don’t know actually if it ever will,” Stelter admitted. “I think that’s very much unclear. Certainly in the years I’ve spent covering media, we know companies try to keep these things as private as possible.” It’s fascinating to watch media companies refuse to talk.
Stelter made another observation about the overwhelming mathematics of Cuomo’s crimes in the 6 pm hour. “Eventually, there were So many problems here and so many journalistic errors that it became untenable to retain him with the company. Phil knows that anchors change. But Cuomo is a bigger than life television presence and this will cause a lot more feelings to this decision in the coming days.
STELTER, Saturday 6:45 pm. CNN’s Chris Cuomo was being kicked and screamed on by the staff. pic.twitter.com/hReUWQKthB
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) December 5, 2021
With Cuomo fired and Rachel Maddow on the way out of a nightly show at that same hour, Stelter said “That’s going to be a television news insider story but the more important outsider story, the reason this matters to everybody is that When we cover sensitive stories, viewers must be able trust the information they hear, even though it may involve a family member or a colleague. This case was very, very complicated, and now in some ways, Phil, it’s been made a lot less complicated because Cuomo has been terminated.”
In the 7 pm hour, Stelter announced This is a matter of journalistic ethics and standards, about CNN’s tolerance for time.” This is the truthiest statement I have heard.
STELTER in the 7 pm hour, slips into honesty, saying the Chris Cuomo Problem was an ethical matter, but maybe about how much embarrassment CNN could tolerate on an installment plan: “This is a matter of journalistic ethics and standards, about what CNN could tolerate over time.” pic.twitter.com/avBOKlZ2dp
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) December 5, 2021
PS: Stay tuned for the next update New York Times reported what may be that “additional information,” that lawyer Debra Katz — who also represented Charlotte Bennett, an accuser of Andrew Cuomo — “informed CNN of a client with an allegation of sexual misconduct against Chris Cuomo. In a Saturday statement, Ms. Katz stated that an allegation was made against anchor …. by a former colleague from another network. Stelter noted that allegation on air Sunday morning, adding the outside law firm informed CNN that Cuomo could be fired for cause.
CNN’s shameful unfolding was partly brought to your attention by Ensure.
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