Wednesday, March 16, 2022

16 March 2022: Chris Cuomo Seeks $125 Million from CNN Over His Firing

Chris Cuomo Serves CNN With $125M Arbitration Demand

We've reached the bottom story of the day, which here at the timeline, means we get to talk about the hapless, journalism ethics-challenged Chris Cuomo, the younger brother of the resigned-in-disgrace former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. In this episode, Chris Cuomo is seeking to arbitrate his way to a $125 million payday from his former employer, CNN. Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter:

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo is demanding $125 million from CNN following his termination from the cable news channel last year.

In a demand for arbitration filed with the dispute resolution giant JAMS, Cuomo alleges that his firing was not justified and that former CNN president Jeff Zucker failed to abide by the terms of Cuomo’s contract “by failing to instruct CNN employees not to disparage Cuomo.”

In fact, the complaint alleges that there was a “calculated campaign to smear Cuomo and destroy his reputation” by some CNN staff.

The $125 million claim, filed by Cuomo’s attorneys at Freedman + Taitelman and Clayman Rosenberg, includes $15 million that he says is owed for the remainder of his contract, but also “future wages lost as a result of CNN’s efforts to destroy his reputation in violation of the Agreement.”

By "disparage", Chris Cuomo really means "accurately describing his actions supporting his powerful politician brother while working at CNN as a 'journalist'".

Cuomo's main argument supporting his claim to $125 million is "my bosses did it too!"

“CNN, including Zucker and [CMO Allison] Gollust, knew of Cuomo’s role as a confidant and sounding board to his brother, and the details of his interactions with Gov. Cuomo and his staff, long before the transcripts of the NYAG investigation were publicly disclosed,” the arbitration filing states. “Cuomo had no reason to believe that his assistance to Gov. Cuomo was inconsistent with CNN’s or Turner’s policies nor its expectations, especially given the fact that Zucker and Gollust had encouraged him to do so and had themselves provided advice to Gov. Cuomo.”

The last we checked, both Jeffrey Zucker and Allison Gollust were likewise fired/compelled to resign for their actions in support of the political interests of Andrew M. Cuomo. As for the merits of Chris Cuomo's $125 million arbitration demand, we'll observe that his future value to any employer in the news media was greatly diminished when his powerful politician brother resigned in disgrace.

For more on the bottom story of the day, here's another angle, focusing on Cuomo's sniping at his former colleagues who remain employed at CNN at this writing:

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