Jeff Zucker, CNN’s former network president, resigned his position earlier this month after he was literally caught with his pants down. Strictly against parent company WarnerMedia’s internal policies, Zucker was having an affair with fellow CNN executive, Allison Gollust. The network said, “We have the highest standards of journalistic integrity at CNN, and those rules apply to everyone equally.”
Yet even after Zucker cleared out his desk the network allowed Gollust to stay on. But only a couple of weeks following his departure, Gollust is on her way out, and it has nothing to do with the illicit affair. It involves CNN news correspondent Chris Cuomo and his bullish brother Andrew.
After further investigation, CNN said in a statement, “The investigation found violations of company policies, including CNN’s News Standards and Practices, by Jeff Zucker, Allison Gollust, and Chris Cuomo.” They would offer no further details.
Chris Cuomo received his walking papers from CNN a while back when New York Attorney General Letitia James released some documents showing how it was him who had been writing the responses to the eleven women accusing brother Andrew of sexual harassment. The two were in cahoots and it was a clear violation of journalistic integrity.
CEO of WarnerMedia, Jason Kilar, said that an independent law firm under the direction of a former federal judge had reviewed over 100,000 texts and emails.
In rebuttal to the network’s statement, Gollust responded thusly; “WarnerMedia’s statement tonight is an attempt to retaliate against me and change the media narrative in the wake of their disastrous handling of the last two weeks. It is deeply disappointing that after spending the past nine years defending and upholding CNN’s highest standard of journalistic integrity, I would be treated this way as I leave.”
In reference to her affair with Zucker, she said, “Jeff and I have been close friends and professional partners for over 20 years. Recently, our relationship changed during COVID. I regret that we didn’t disclose it at the right time. I’m incredibly proud of my time at CNN and look forward to continuing the great work we do every day.”
Here’s where this all comes together. Before joining the CNN team, Gollust was Andrew Cuomo’s communications director. Prior to this, she worked at NBC with the one and only, Jeff Zucker. Over time the four of them, inclusive of Chris, became chummy to the point of rearranging facts in Andrew’s defense.
Gollust and Zucker are both divorced so neither one was cheating on a spouse, but for very good reason it was a strong violation of ethics. It leads to persuasion and special favors that can slant reports, and in the case of Andrew Cuomo, boy did it ever. The two love birds were required by network guidelines to report their relationship but failed to do so.
Perhaps Zucker knew there was more coming down the pike so he used the affair as his reason to quit and be done with the mess. Gollust had a little more faith that there would be no further investigation once he resigned, but she was incorrect.
CNN for the longest time was feeding false information to their liberal viewers concerning Andrew Cuomo. They tried to stick a sheep’s costume on a wolf instead of going with that bogus integrity claim CNN keeps tossing in people’s faces.
They might all four be history now, but CNN will always be CNN. A few of them just happened to have gotten caught this time so the network seized the golden opportunity to affirm their journalistic self-righteousness.
