3 December 2021: Opinion - Why Chris Cuomo’s ‘family first’ defense doesn’t fly

Why Chris Cuomo’s ‘family first’ defense doesn’t fly

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan rejects the ethically-challenged Chris Cuomo's claims his abuse of media resources to support his powerful politician brother, the resigned-in-disgrace former governor of New York Andrew M. Cuomo, are justified because his brother. Here's Sullivan's Twitter post announcing the article, an text excerpt from the article follows:

Why Chris Cuomo’s ‘family first’ defense just doesn’t fly. … My column here https://t.co/KOH966XVOQ

— 💫 Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) December 1, 2021

Here's an excerpt from the article, in which she takes on the argument that Chris Cuomo's journalistic misconduct can be excused because it was in the service of his brother's interests:

“I confess to some ambivalence about Chris Cuomo's suspension,” wrote former New York Times reporter and columnist Clyde Haberman. While a deserved punishment, he noted, “wouldn't you help your brother if he fell into trouble even of his own making?”

One member of my informal focus group (some tennis-playing friends in Buffalo) echoed this idea. Cuomo “said family first, job second. How do you fault him for that?” my friend texted me, adding that he objects to “cancel culture.”

Chris Cuomo and his CNN bosses have continually articulated this “family first, job second” philosophy in recent months, although that logic is thoroughly misguided. In this case. I'd call it downright twisted.

This was not about taking a leave of absence from your job as a teacher, let's say, to donate a lifesaving kidney to your brother. I hope we would all do that.

No, this was about a high-powered media star using his considerable juice to blunt credible accusations of sexual assault and misconduct against the governor of New York.

Power helping power, in the service of disrupting the investigation of potential crimes.

“I have three brothers and I would absolutely not help them if they were sexually harassing women,” author Lyz Lenz wrote in response to Haberman. “In fact, I would help write the exposé.”

Even if you accept the idea that Chris Cuomo is less a journalist than an entertainer, the rules of journalistic ethics still ought to apply. He is, as much as anyone, the face of CNN.

So what are these ethical rules? Pretty simple. You don't abuse your position in journalism — whether at a weekly newspaper or a major network — for personal or familial gain.

If you're a journalist, you don't write a letter on news-organization letterhead to the City Council asking for a special easement on your property. You don't accept a case of wine at holiday time from a local real estate developer if you're a business reporter.

And you certainly don't do what Chris Cuomo did: involve himself with a crisis-management effort that could influence the outcome of a criminal investigation of the highest elected official in New York. It's wrong.

Chris Cuomo's actions were not just wrong, they were blindingly and obviously wrong for anyone who claims to be any kind of professional journalist. Anyone who did what Cuomo has done falls into a special class of corruption and stupidity.

Here's Sullivan's bottom line for the final words on the topic:

Putting “family first” may sound appealing. But in this case it’s nothing but an excuse for unethical behavior and a breach of journalistic standards.