Sexual Misconduct on All Sides as Chris Cuomo Tries to Drag CNN Down With Him

CNN chief Jeff Zucker was allegedly shocked at the level of Cuomo’s involvement, which was apparently deeper than the anchor had told him. Cuomo maintains Zucker absolutely knew the facts. It’s looking like he won’t go down without a fight and I, for one, think I may root for injuries here.

But Cuomo himself is facing some deep issues. He is also facing new allegations of sexual misconduct from a junior staffer from his time at another network. This could be, as my colleague Nick Arama pointed out yesterday, the “additional information” CNN said it received which ultimately led to Cuomo’s dismissal.

But allegations like this aren’t new. An ex-boss at ABC claimed Cuomo inappropriately touched her backside at a party. It would appear that the anchor truly is cut from the same cloth as his brother.

To be absolutely fair, yes there is a presumption of innocence, no matter who the person is. But Cuomo has not helped himself at all by being so deeply entangled in his brother’s scandal. By using his position to help advise his brother on how to handle it, as well as using sources and connections to identify his brother’s accusers, he has shown himself to be someone who will try to cover up allegations like this or make them go away.

But there is another issue here, and that feeds directly into the problems at CNN: Zucker personally went out and recruited Cuomo to come to the network, vouched for him, allowed him to (unethically) interview his brother for a series of softball spots on his prime time show, and stood by him when he was initially reported to be advising his brother. If there are two allegations against Cuomo that we know of, both from a previous network, there are undoubtedly more out there, and some of which CNN had tried to deal with privately.

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