Chris Cuomo would like an arbitrator award him $125million for his firing by CNN. He claims that his bosses knew exactly how he advised his brother, the former governor of New York. Andrew Cuomo suggested that they do the same.
On Wednesday, Cuomo filed for arbitration. This revealed more uglyness at the network. CNN chief Jeff Zimz and Allison Gollust have all been fired in the last three months.
After a New York Attorney General report revealed new details about his brother’s strategy to combat sexual harassment, Zucker fired Cuomo as the host of the network’s most popular prime-time show in December.
Bryan Freedman, his lawyer, stated that it should be evident by now that Chris Cuomo didn’t lie to CNN about helping him brother. “In fact, the limited information from Warner Media’s investigation reveals that CNN’s top-level executives knew of Chris’ involvement in helping their brother and actively assisted him, both directly and through Chris.”
A representative of Zucker and Gollust did not comment Wednesday. Risa Heller, the spokeswoman for Gollust and Zucker, has in the past denied that Gollust was a former press aide of Gov. Cuomo offered advice and counsel to Governor Gollust while she was at CNN.
CNN declined to comment on the filing.
Chris Cuomo interviewed his big sister on CNN nine times during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. This was a temporary lifting of CNN’s policy that Chris Cuomo would not be involved in stories about the governor.
Chris Cuomo filed Wednesday stating that CNN leadership demanded interviews despite the fact that he and his brother were hesitant about them.
He claimed that Zucker and Gollust attempted to strengthen the network’s ties with his brother and pressured the New York governor to not appear on other networks. He claimed that they asked the governor to hold his daily briefings when CNN was struggling for ratings.
Freedman stated that network standards were altered in a calculated move to increase ratings. Chris was made the scapegoat when these practices were questioned.
Cuomo also brought two ex-colleagues into his complaint. He claimed Jake Tapper and Don Lemon were never disciplined because of incidents seen as ethical lapses. Lemon was accused of texting Jussie Smollett, while Tapper was allegedly giving advice to a politician.
The network standards were “a moving target”, modified by Zucker and Gollust as Zucker and Gollust deemed appropriate, according to the complaint.
Cuomo’s journalistic integrity was “unjustly smeared” and he will have difficulty finding work in his field in future. The complaint sought damages of $125,000,000.
After it emerged that Zucker had not disclosed his relationship with Gollust in accordance with corporate policies, Zucker was forced to resign. Shortly thereafter, she was forced to leave.
