Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple was on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday, talking about the media coverage of Andrew Cuomo, when he took a moment to address the big elephant in the room.
CNN has come under intense criticism for the fawning interviews Chris Cuomo conducted with his own brother for months, including (arguably the most embarrassing one of all) an interview involving a giant cotton swab prop.
Amid the current scandal surrounding his brother, Cuomo said he could not cover it, but that just raised the question of this standard being applied after he already spent multiple interviews propping up his brother’s leadership.
So when Brian Stelter asked Wemple for his assessment, and he said at one point, “I would be remiss, Brian, if I didn’t mention CNN’s own huge media story here with Chris Cuomo.”
Wemple recalled all those “wonderful love-a-thon interviews” and said, “They suspended the conflict of interest rule for Chris Cuomo for those interviews, yet all of a sudden they’ve enforced it again now that Andrew Cuomo is in the midst of an historic scandal in the Albany state house.”