Brian Stelter’s Defense of CNN’s Situational Standards Surrounding Chris Cuomo Verges on Gaslighting
CNN’s Brian Stelter continued to defend CNN’s handling of Chris Cuomo’s counsel to — and coverage of — his brother Governor Andrew Cuomo during an appearance on CBS’ The Late Show Tuesday evening.
The Reliable Sources host offered a nuanced defense of what he called an “awkward” and “complicated” situation regarding his employer to host Stephen Colbert, but that seems a far more generous critique and certainly one he would not give to other cable outlets if they were in a similar situation.
In the wake of his brother’s resignation, Chris Cuomo and CNN are under fire over conflicts of interests dating back to Spring of 2020, and aggravated by the anchor’s involvement in counseling his brother on the charges of sexual misconduct.
That’s the hot seat on which Stelter found himself Tuesday, as Colbert grilled the media reporter on CNN’s involvement in the story. Colbert asked if reports of Chris’s ongoing counsel to his brother have created any conflict over at CNN.
“Behind closed doors, are people mad at him?” Colbert asked.
Stelter confirmed that “some people are mad at him,” and told Colbert that he also has a source that says Chris was on the phone with his brother this week, as the New York Times reported.
“Is your source Chris Cuomo?” Colbert asked, to which Stelter replied “no,” adding with a completely straight face “you gotta have boundaries, you got to draw lines.”
“Why? He doesn’t,” Colbert shot back congenially but pointedly, calling out the shifting standards. The jokey back and forth drew laughter from the studio audience, but the situational shifting of boundaries for Chris Cuomo, and journalists at CNN, isn’t really a laughing matter. It undermines viewers’ trust in an outlet that has long boasted it’s “the most trusted name in news.” But is it still?
After Stelter referenced the CNN “management ruling” that Chris could not cover his brother’s scandal, Colbert asked the question that nearly every American familiar with the very basic standards of journalism has been asking: “But why didn’t they rule that way when his brother was pretty much on the show every night during the Covid crisis? That seems like an odd conflict of rules.”
“Odd” conflict? Or clear conflict?
Stelter returned to the derision-worthy analysis he gave on Sunday’s Reliable Sources, calling the story “complicated” and adding that “if we open up the journalism ethics book, there is no page for this,” basically playing the befuddled observer, rather than the seasoned professional journalism expert.
Stelter’s explanation of the CNN story verged on gaslighting as he suggested the “crazy circumstance” of two brothers having “high profile jobs,” before allowing it was “awkward for CNN though.”
But journalistic ethics are designed to keep clear conflicts of interest out of the equation, no matter how “crazy” the circumstance of a powerful family holding powerful jobs. And Stelter is not acting like he’s a reporter here, unless you imagine he’d make these same analyses were he reporting on, say, Fox News’ coverage of its own internal scandals.
Stelter’s massively understated allowance that this has been “awkward” for CNN is true, but the mess that they are in on this is one of their own making. Not only has CNN done no favors to Chris Cuomo, but Stelter giving a nuanced pass for his employer, while entirely predictable, doesn’t make it better.
Watch above via CBS.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
