Jeff Zucker news – latest: CNN’s Stelter says Chris Cuomo trying to ‘burn’ down network, exposed ex-boss

In a surprising moment on Wednesday CNN’s media correspondent and host of Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter, appeared on-air to share the latest updates on the situation at the network.

Mr Stelter appeared in a segement hosted by Victor Blackwell and Alisyn Camerota where he confirmed reporting that ex-CNN host Chris Cuomo had revealed the secret relationship between network president Jeff Zucker and executive vice president Allison Gollost.

The CNN correspondent went further than some reporting of the situation has so far and characterised Mr Cuomo’s response to being fired from CNN as him “trying to burn the place down”, and asserted that Mr Cuomo’s attorneys had claimed in court that they were in possession of incriminating information regarding the pair. A description of that supposedly damaging information was not immediately available, and Ms Gollost has indicated that she is remaining at CNN.

CNN’s Brian Stelter also confirmed on Wednesday that executives at the network wanted Jeff Zucker to step down immediately after the existence of his relationship with executive vice president Allison Gollost was learned.

The media correspondent said on-air to colleagues Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell that his former boss was “facing termination if he did not resign,” and added that the network declined to give him a transition period after which he would resign.

WarnerMedia’s CEO was in New York on Wednesday to oversee the ouster of Jeff Zucker at the company’s offices and studios, CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter reported on Twitter.

Jason Kilar will also meet with employees in Washington DC as well as the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, according to Mr Stelter.

Radar Online, a publication that specialises in media news and celebrity gossip, reported on Wednesday that Mr Zucker’s relationship with his colleague Allison Gollost went back much further than has been publicly acknowledged by the pair.

Though the two have described the relationship as something that blossomed in the last couple of years, Radar Online contended that the relationship actually dates back much longer, back to when both CNN executives were married. The two announced divorces with their respective partners within a year of each other.

“The talk in the corridors of CNN about Jeff and Allison’s purported relationship complicates the sticky decision to fire Chris,” the site reported one “highly-placed” source as describing the situation. “Have they sullied the network’s reputation? One could argue they have; it just hasn’t been made public yet.”

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On-air personalities on CNN’s rival network Fox News reacted to the news on Wednesday shortly after the news broke.

Both host Harris Faulkner and media columnist Joe Concha speculated that there was likely more to the story than the “consensual relationship” Jeff Zucker described in his resignation statement.

“Whatever it is or was, he’s out,” Harris Faulkner told her viewers.

“I think there’s more to this story,” Mr Concha agreed.

“When you’re looking at the book on Jeff Zucker, his legacy is...making [CNN] an absolutely an activist organisation” aimed at targeting Donald Trump and conservatives, he added.

Fox News co-host and weather anchor Janice Dean mocked the unfolding drama at rival CNN on Wednesday, quipping that the situation was too bizarre to have been written in Hollywood.

The Fox and Friends co-host was an outspoken critic of New York Gov Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis and expressed her surprise in the scandal that took out the governor reaching as far as CNN’s executive suites.

“Was there a coverup from the president of CNN, and how did that unfold? What I do hear is that this was one of the worst-kept secrets, the Zucker relationship,” said Ms Dean to her Fox colleague Bret Baier. “And the fact that this woman, his second-in-command, was once working for Andrew Cuomo. So you just can’t make this script up!”

By attacking CNN as a home for individuals accused of sexual misconduct US conservatives are missing the real story: The idea that the president of a major news network may have had a role in an effort by New York’s governor to cover up his own sexual misconduct, argues The Independent’s Kathleen N. Walsh.

“The political right is once again dishonestly and cynically coopting the very real issues of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace, especially from powerful men at the top, in order to advance a narrative that ultimately minimizes and devalues those issues,” writes Ms Walsh.

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CNN’s Alisyn Camerota spared no words when discussing her feelings about Jeff Zucker, who she praised as a one-of-a-kind boss.

The anchor reacted to the news Wednesday afternoon, stating that she didn’t think it was right that the episode had cost Mr Zucker his job.

“It’s so regrettable how it happened,” said Ms Camerota. “These are two consenting adults who are both executives. That they can't have a private relationship, this feels wrong.”

She went on to praise Mr Zucker’s talents as a leader, explaining that the former CNN boss had made his employees feel valued in the workplace.

“He has an uncanny ability to make I think every one of us, special and valuable,” she said, adding: “I don’t think that that comes around all the time.”

Jeff Zucker’s career at CNN is now the highest-profile casualty of a legal battle launched by Chris Cuomo, a fired CNN anchor, as part of his bid to obtain the full payment of a multimillion-dollar contract he was promised by CNN before allegations of his own misconduct as well as his work to help his brother, then the governor of New York, evade consequences took down Mr Cuomo’s own career.

Mr Cuomo is said by various media reports to be seeking a nearly $20 million payout from CNN, while the network’s lawyers argue that his firing was with cause and therefore he is not entitled to the remainder of his contract.

"The talk in the corridors of CNN about Jeff and Allison's purported relationship complicates the sticky decision to fire Chris," one CNN source told Radar Online, a media and celebrity news site.