As Townhall readers are more than aware by now, Chris Cuomo has been "indefinitely suspended" from CNN after the latest revelations exposing the full extent of his involvement with his disgraced brother's defense against sexual harassment/assault allegations while he was governor of New York.
CNN host Chris Cuomo used his sources in the media world to seek information on women who accused his brother Andrew Cuomo, then the governor of New York, of sexual harassment, according to documents released Monday by the New York Attorney General’s Office.
While Chris Cuomo has previously acknowledged advising his brother and his team on the response to the scandals, the records show that his role in helping the then-governor was much larger and more intimate than previously known.
Your pal and mine, Matt Vespa, speculated immediately on the revelations and reached the obvious conclusion that Cuomo-the-lesser should be fired. As usual, Vespa's not wrong.
So, what did CNN do?
After an excruciating 24 hour evaluation period (where they were probably only evaluating the sense of the public's tolerance for this debacle), the once-dominant news network announced Cuomo's suspension.
"The New York Attorney General's office released transcripts and exhibits Monday that shed new light on Chris Cuomo's involvement in his brother's defense," a CNN spokesperson said Tuesday evening. "The documents, which we were not privy to before their public release, raise serious questions."
"When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother's staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly," the spokesperson continued. "But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second."
"However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother's efforts than we previously knew," the spokesperson added. "As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation."
In plain words, Cuomo was suspended because he lied to CNN. Yup. Not only did he brazenly breach what's left of CNN's journalistic standards and integrity, but he also misled them about it.
I know this because I'm kinda bilingual. I can decipher press-release-speak. It's a gift... and a curse.
"These documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother's efforts than we previously knew" is a pretty passive and third-person way of saying, "Fredo didn't come clean."
So he blew past what's left of the macaroni-sized guard-rails CNN pretends to have upon the path their advocates charge down every day as they do the bidding of their masters in the Democratic Party. He also lied about it to his employer because he arrogantly believed they'd never find out.
You can't blame him for his arrogance... apparently, like grabbing innocent women's butts, it's a genetic thing.
So why not fire him? I mean.. would your employer tolerate this? Would you get away with it?
Of course not, but you're not a gifted and talented little guy like Chris Cuomo.
Between this episode and the Jeffrey Toobin debacle, can you imagine what it might be like to work in the CNN HR department? I mean.. what the hell is going on over there, exactly? What do you have to do to get fired over there?
Oh, wait... there actually is an answer to that rhetorical question.
CNN said on Thursday that it had fired three employees who violated its coronavirus safety protocols by going to the office unvaccinated, one of the first known examples of a major American corporation’s terminating workers for ignoring a workplace vaccination mandate.
Well, that sort of behavior can't be tolerated now, can it?
Wednesday, Kurt Schlichter's potato pal Brian Stelter made an appearance as a guest on his own network to give his analysis, which had to be cleared through his employer's PR department. He characterized Cuomo's suspension as being "on the bench" and then dropped this little nugget:
Stelter: A "lot of viewers" are "now ticked off that he's off the air, and they want to see him back....Cuomo is on the bench for now. We're heading into a holiday season. I think it's possible he will be on the bench for several weeks. It's possible he'll be back in January." pic.twitter.com/lDSksRuWBO
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) December 1, 2021
"Cuomo is on the bench for now. We're heading into a holiday season. I think it's possible he will be on the bench for several weeks. It's possible he'll be back in January."
So... it's less of a suspension than an extended Christmas vacation. And, why not? I mean, he's worked his little tail off all year. It's not easy to hold down two jobs at once. You try reading a teleprompter for an hour every night in front of thousands of sleeping viewers while, during the day, failing to help a politician out of trouble.
The poor guy deserves a break.
And, yes, you should expect him back. He was never hired and promoted by CNN to uphold their journalistic standards. So it would be pretty odd for them to fire him for failing to do so.
He'll be back by February.
Unless... unless CNN decides that this experiment with political hackery while foregoing even the thin veneer of objectivity they once attempted to maintain is not giving them the payoff they hoped for. Maybe CNN will realize that the audience looking for shameless political advocacy dressed up as a nightly news show already has plenty of other options down the channel list... and frankly, the other guys do it better.
If Cuomo gets fired, you'll know that CNN is serious about rebranding their failed network. If not, you'll know that they've abandoned the pretense of "news" and have gone for broke as the corporate propaganda arm of Biden's White House.
Don't hold your breath...