23 May 2021: Opinion - Cuomos Playing by Their Own Rules

Lessons from the Quid Pro Cuo Bros: Andrew and Chris play by their own rules

Harry Siegel's op-ed in the New York Daily News is weighing in on last week's Cuomo scandal news, which engulfs not just Governor Andrew Cuomo, but also his younger brother, CNN's Chris Cuomo:

With his public polling yet to collapse, it feels like Cuomo has stumbled into Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s approach of flooding the zone with excrement.

And Andrew has clearly taken the advice of Chris Cuomo — CNN’s top-rated host, who spent the summer doing goofy shows with his big brother the governor, no hard questions required — reportedly gave on crisis-management calls with administration staffers and lawyers as the harassment accusations kept coming to “take a defiant position,” with Chris invoking “cancel culture” as a reason for Andrew to hold on.

It takes some nerve to get on a call that violates every known code of journalistic ethics to rail against “cancel culture,” but that’s a Cuomo for you.

Thursday night, after CNN put out a shrug of a statement saying “it was inappropriate” for Chris to have been on those calls, he opened his show by reading a brief scripted intro where he told viewers how much he loves his family while assuring them “I know where the line is.”

The line is wherever it needs to be for the Quid Pro Cuo Bros to maintain power and position, and they’ll say or do whatever they need to to make sure that happens.

When you’re a star, they let you do it.

It has been said elsewhere that rules are for the little people. The Cuomo brothers' scandals certainly fit that worldview.