Cuomo, a former CNN presenter, was fired by Zucker in December after documents revealed how he had helped his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, devise strategies to fight sexual misconduct.
The parent company CNN says it has completed its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Chris Cuomo and the dismissal of network chief Jeff Zucker. But at a news conference, he chose to leave questions unanswered.
An internal report, which was launched in September and prepared by Cravath law firm Swaine & Moore, will not be made public, WarnerMedia said Wednesday.
WarnerMedia chief executive Jason Kilar told CNN staff on Tuesday that the report ended over the weekend. His memorandum said marketing officer Allison Gollust, the woman whose relationship with Zucker led to his downfall, would also leave the company.
Kilar said the investigation, based on interviews with more than 40 people and a review of more than 100,000 texts and emails, “found violations of company policies, including CNN, Jeff Zucker, Allison Gollust and Chris Cuomo.”
Cuomo, a former CNN presenter, was fired by Zucker in December after documents revealed how he had helped his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, devise strategies to fight sexual misconduct. Zucker was forced to resign earlier this month for violating the company’s policy by not making it clear that his relationship with Gollust was romantic.
Kilar said in her history book that “these stories are disturbing, disappointing and, without a doubt, painful to read.”
But the statement did not specify allegations of media violations. Even Kilar’s memo was not entirely clear – did each named person violate both company policies and media standards? – and a WarnerMedia spokesman did not comment on Wednesday.
Zucker was barred from making further statements about his departure from CNN, according to someone who knew the separation agreement and spoke under condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to speak about it.
“Jeff has resigned due to an undisclosed relationship,” said Ruck Heller, a spokeswoman for Zucker.
But Cuomo’s spokesman, Steve Goldberg, said “it is clear that this has never been the case in an undisclosed relationship. the results of its investigation and explain its basis for Mr. Cuomo’s dismissal. ”
Heller said Zucker did not know how much Cuomo was helping his brother, which is why Chris was fired.
News organizations have taken a variety of approaches to how they conduct investigations into the actions of their journalists. CBS News released a comprehensive public report by an independent panel in 2005 dismissing an unauthorized report on the service of former President George W. Bush’s National Guard. Ten years later, NBC News retained its inside secret information about how anchor Brian Williams made incorrect statements about the material he covered.
The New York Times, in an article published Wednesday, reported on a letter sent to CNN by Debra Katz, a lawyer representing victims of sexual harassment, accusing Cuomo of misbehaving with a young woman while working for ABC News before joining CNN. .
The letter said years after allegations of misconduct, during the #MeToo organization broadcasting news, Cuomo contacted the woman about making CNN’s story to the company she worked for at the time, according to the Times. CNN made the allegations, although the woman tried to avoid contact with Cuomo, the newspaper reported.
Katz wrote that the woman suspected that Cuomo was trying to discourage her from coming forward to discuss allegations of misconduct, the Times reported.
Katz declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
“He was never questioned about the allegations before he was withdrawn or given a chance to respond to the allegations,” Goldberg said.