Jeff Zucker attends the 13th Annual CNN Heroes at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, NY, December 8, 2019. (Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)
NY: 13th Annual CNN Heroes – Arrivals
NEW YORK (77WABC) — CNN boss Jeff Zucker and his gal pal Allison Gollust had an inappropriately close friendship with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — personally calling him to do news segments with his brother Chris Cuomo and even coaching him on what to say during his infamous COVID briefings.
The New York Post reporting Gollust and Zucker — the latter of whom dramatically quit CNN Wednesday after their affair was exposed — also gave Andrew Cuomo endless positive coverage because of their relationship, sources said.
“While those 11:30 a.m. daily briefings by Andrew were across every network, they boosted ratings in a poorly performing slot for CNN,” one source said.
According to a source to Cuomo, “Zucker and Gollust even advised Andrew what to say — how to respond and particularly how to hit back at [President Donald] Trump to make it more compelling TV.
“No network head should be coaching an elected official,” the source added. “It’s absolutely the antithesis of CNN’s standards of business.”
Multiple insiders say the friendship between Andrew Cuomo and Zucker stretches back years — while Gollust was the disgraced governor’s head of communications, before joining CNN.
Since-fired anchor Chris Cuomo hosted his brother more than a dozen times on his primetime show, with some brotherly banter infused with simmering sibling rivalry.
Despite widespread criticism at the time, CNN denied it was a conflict of interest, telling the Washington Post, “We felt that Chris speaking with his brother about the challenges of what millions of American families were struggling with was of significant human interest.”
A rep for Zucker said of the claim he gave Andrew Cuomo preferential treatment and coaching for his COVID press conferences, “This is 100% false. During a once in a lifetime pandemic when people were desperate for information, CNN and every other network took the briefings live. Jeff of course had a relationship with Andrew Cuomo, as he does with countless other electeds.”
