Grab yourself some popcorn as the drama surrounding former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo heats up in a new filing spilling the tea on his network and colleagues.
In a recent filing of a demand for arbitration against Turner Services and CNN, Cuomo alleged that his former employer treated him differently from his colleagues when it came to its handling of alleged breaches.
“So long as [former CNN President Jeff] Zucker and [former executive Allison] Gollust believed CNN’s ratings would benefit, they were more than willing to disregard breaches of traditional journalistic standards by CNN personalities, such as Don Lemon and Jake Tapper, or even to engage in blatant breaches of journalistic ethics themselves,” read in Cuomo’s filing.
The former CNN anchor pointed out that Lemon was involved in the Jussie-Smollett case, accusing his colleague of sending a text message to the actor “to warn him that Chicago police did not believe Smollett’s allegations of suffering a racist, homophobic attack.”
Cuomo also called out Tapper, claiming that he “repeatedly urged Congressional candidate Sean Parnell not to run against Rep. Conor Lamb, but to run in a ‘safer,’ more heavily Republican district.”
The filing contends the network showed disparate treatment in that it did not initiate any investigations or disciplinary actions, with Cuomo calling it “hypocrisy.”
“CNN allowed employees to retain their jobs for offenses much more egregious than anything CNN alleges Cuomo ever did,” Cuomo said.
“But because Cuomo was so strongly linked to Gov. Cuomo, whose political standing and corresponding value to CNN had turned dramatically, CNN falsely claimed that Cuomo violated its policies and practices as an excuse to terminate his contract. This is the epitome of hypocrisy, as there was no valid basis for terminating his contract,” he added.
Both Lemon and Tapper came under scrutiny earlier after several publications alleged them for violating journalistic standards and given CNN’s decision for not launching an investigation could prove true to Cuomo’s claims.
Cuomo is suing the network for the remainder of his contract, amounting to “less than $15 million,” he claims.
He is also seeking at least $110 million in consequential damages after getting fired for his actions related to sexual harassment allegations against his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
