The Washington Post Erik Wemple is reporting that former CNN head Jeff Zucker and his girlfriend, CNN executive Allison Gollust were behind those awful Cuomo-on-Cuomo interviews that eventually led to the firing of Chris Cuomo:
According to several sources, Gollust and Zucker were instrumental in securing the Cuomo-on-Cuomo interviews. Though Andrew Cuomo’s staff assented to the early appearances, they had second thoughts about continuing the series. 7/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 3, 2022
Janice Dean, reacting to that report, called on Gollust to be fired as well:
Wow. So Zucker and his girlfriend were the ones behind the jokey interviews while thousands of seniors were dying. They thought the Cuomo brothers Comedy hour was better TV than actually reporting news during a once in a lifetime pandemic. They both should be FIRED. https://t.co/8jrOCWXAFt
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 3, 2022
And why aren’t Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy reporting this?
This entire episode is such a rough indictment of CNN's own media watchdogs, who have consistently felt like PR flacks for their network through these scandals, not journalists. https://t.co/W23ogqjcZr
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 3, 2022
According to Wemple, Andrew Cuomo’s staff pushed back on the interviews but Gollust, who used to work for the former governor, intervened to make it happen:
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When the governor’s staff pushed back at CNN booking appeals, according to sources, Gollust appealed directly to the governor, who she’d known from her short stint as his communications director years before. 8/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 3, 2022
Nice spin, CNN:
A CNN spokesperson notes that executives pressing public officials for interviews is standard practice, and that’s 100 percent correct. Gollust reportedly argued for appearances on non-Chris Cuomo shows, too. 9/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 3, 2022
It was always about ratings and CNN just won’t admit it:
Yet it’s noteworthy that the upper reaches of the organization got personally involved in arranging interviews that conflicted with CNN standards, even if the network famously crafted an exception for the Cuomo-on-Cuomo affairs. 10/
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 3, 2022
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