CNN Misleads Viewers on Cuomo-Brother Interview ‘Rule’

As Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for allegedly sexually harassing at least three women, CNN has fallen back on a 2013 “rule” that purportedly prevents the younger Cuomo from “interviewing and covering his brother” — a rule that was implicitly and explicitly ignored for years.

On Monday, Chris Cuomo opened his primetime show by conceding that he is “obviously” unable to cover the accusations leveled at the governor “because he is my brother” — a sentiment he elaborated upon during his Tuesday radio show. While the explanation seems to contradict the governor’s near-nightly appearances on his brother’s show last year, CNN has explained that those interviews, conducted in the early days of the COVID crisis, represented a temporary exception to a longstanding policy.

Last month, as Andrew Cuomo was facing more questions about his state’s handling of COVID in New York nursing homes, the network explained to Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple that the short-lived exception had elapsed right around the time the news cycle turned against the governor.

“The early months of the pandemic crisis were an extraordinary time. We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American families were struggling with was of significant human interest,” CNN said in a statement. “As a result, we made an exception to a rule that we have had in place since 2013 which prevents Chris from interviewing and covering his brother, and that rule remains in place today. CNN has covered the news surrounding Governor Cuomo extensively.”

The policy was reportedly handed down after Chris Cuomo interviewed his brother about a deadly New York train derailment in December 2013.

The younger Cuomo argued the interview didn’t represent a conflict of interest during an appearance on fellow CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin’s nightly show, during which Baldwin touted the value of the Cuomo connection.

“You have this unique relationship with Andrew Cuomo, which has helped us lead this story and have all this crucial information, and so we here at CNN are very grateful, right, for that relationship,” Baldwin said.

“Reporting is all connections,” Cuomo responded. “I knew there was no conflict here, there’s no question of conflict because he’s got a job to do, so do I, this was all fact-based, and it’s something that that didn’t involve [Governor Cuomo] in terms of the accountability. See, that changes everything. If there’s something that’s been done wrong at the state level that he deserves to get hammered and has to answer for it, right? I wouldn’t put myself in that position.”

The answer — i.e. interviewing my brother is fine as long as the topic (a deadly train derailment) doesn’t call for “accountability” on his part — apparently put Cuomo in hot water. Per Ben Smith of the New York Times, CNN executives subsequently told the anchor that he could no longer interview his governor brother.

However, that prohibition apparently didn’t apply in 2018, when Cuomo was allowed to interview his brother after bombs were sent to prominent Democrats by a Florida man and Trump supporter. CNN has not responded to a request for comment about this second “exception.”

The supposed prohibition also didn’t stop the governor from appearing on his brother’s morning show upwards of ten other times between 2013 and when the pandemic began. In a half-hearted gesture towards the network’s policy, Chris Cuomo would stay silent as his cohost interviewed the governor. The elder Cuomo took advantage of this dynamic, often poking fun at his brother. But as Politico noted in 2015, “[w]hile he’s appeared more on national programs like New Day, the governor has been a less regular guest on statewide or local broadcasts.”

So, Cuomo limited his media exposure while conveniently increasing his appearances on a show whose agenda happened to be partially shaped by his anchor-brother.