How dual loyalties created an ethics problem for Chris Cuomo and CNN

Chris Cuomo during on air report in front of the Time Warner Building, where police removed an explosive device Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018, in New York. AP Photo/Kevin Hagen^[12]

Public interest above self-interest

As Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel – former journalists and now ethics scholars and media watchdogs – have written^[13], “[Journalists] must strive to put the public interest – and the truth – above their own self-interest or assumptions.”

Journalists’ fundamental role in democracy is to hold those in power, especially those in government, accountable^[14]. But if they have close relationships with those in power, their independence, or at least the perception of it, can be compromised. Independence coupled with accountability and transparency underpin the public’s trust^[15] in journalists.

But goodwill towards Chris Cuomo, who the Washington Post reported^[16] was “known for his intense loyalty to the network, its employees and their families,” along with the unwavering support^[17] of CNN President Jeff Zucker, helped Cuomo keep his job.

He stayed in it until the Nov. 29 document dump disclosed just how closely the CNN anchor had helped his brother Andrew’s team frame and mount a defense to the accusations. Among the offers Chris made: he would work his own journalistic sources^[18] to investigate the credibility of the women who alleged harassment or assault.

At that point, CNN suspended^[19] Cuomo “indefinitely.”

“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly,” CNN said in a statement^[20]. “But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second.”

Cuomo’s firing followed four days later.

‘Accountable and transparent’

Was it ethical for the anchor to continue to advise his brother while representing to his viewers that he was keeping his relationship at arm’s length? Should he even have participated in what a Donald Trump campaign spokesman called “the Cuomo Brothers Comedy Hour^[21]” at the beginning of the pandemic?

Journalists’ associations have developed ethical codes and guidelines that address this situation.

One of the oldest^[22] and best known is the Code of Ethics^[23] of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). News organizations^[24] also have their own ethics rules and post them^[25] online so that the public can read them. Television networks frequently assign ethics enforcement to their “Standards and Practices^[26]” departments.

These codes set out the ethical standards for a news operation.

The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics, which says ‘An ethical journalist acts with integrity.’ Society of Professional Journalists^[27]

But the word “code” is a misnomer. Although news organizations are free to enforce their provisions on their own staff, they are not intended to create legal obligations^[28] to anyone else, as with licensed professions such as law^[29] and medicine^[30]. The SPJ Code is explicit about this, emphasizing that its code is “not, nor can it be under the First Amendment, legally enforceable.”

It does, however, emphasize that conflicts of interest must be avoided, or at the very least, disclosed, to maintain independence and transparency.

CNN has acknowledged that Chris Cuomo “broke our rules.” But the rules aren’t posted on CNN’s website^[31]. In fact, CNN has fought to keep them secret^[32].

In August, the Washington Post quoted^[33] from a leaked copy of the network’s “News Standards & Practices Policy Guide,” reporting that “the document mandates that ‘CNN employees should avoid any real obligation or appearance of any obligation to any interest that he/she may be covering or reporting on,’ and ‘should avoid conflicts between personal interests and the interest of the company or even the appearance of such conflicts.’”

That sounds about right, but did CNN enforce those rules with Chris Cuomo? How could the anchor avoid conflicts of interest while pitching softball questions to his brother during the pandemic, much less by providing behind-the-scenes advice on how to deal with the sexual harassment scandal?

Many media commentators^[34] say that he couldn’t, and now, CNN seems to agree.

Media columnist Margaret Sullivan said of Cuomo, ‘You don’t abuse your position in journalism…for personal or familial gain.’ Eric Hanson for The Washington Post via Getty Images^[35]

Fool me once

Was it unrealistic to expect the Cuomo brothers not to confer in times of crisis? Some news consumers think so, as reader comments^[36] on a Nov. 30 New York Times story contended: “One of the biggest draws to CNN is Chris Cuomo & his personalized brotherly banter & friendship with Don Lemon. He reflects what’s right in America. Family & Loyalty.”

Those readers are right that it is a question of loyalty. But they are answering the question differently than many journalists would.

Kovach and Rosenstiel have written^[37] that journalists’ “first loyalty is to citizens,” and in their book The Elements of Journalism^[38] call it an “implied covenant” with the audience.

As columnist Margaret Sullivan argued^[39] in the Washington Post, “You don’t abuse your position in journalism — whether at a weekly newspaper or a major network — for personal or familial gain.”

Conflicts of interest violate that covenant and undermine public confidence in media independence. Some conflicts of interest are such a problem that no amount of disclosure or disclaimers can cure them. CNN has apparently concluded^[40] that Chris Cuomo’s is one of them.

Authors: Jane E Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota

Read more https://theconversation.com/how-dual-loyalties-created-an-ethics-problem-for-chris-cuomo-and-cnn-173057

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