CNN’s 51-year-old primetime host Chris Cuomo has been outed by former ABC TV journalist and executive producer Shelley Ross for grabbing her butt cheek about 16 years ago. Ross made her disclosure after 16 years, deciding it was better in the #MeToo age to set the record straight. While the incident happened at a 2005 party, Ross came forward in the wake of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stepping down Aug. 27 when 11 separate women came forward, most of whom subordinate state employees, complained of workplace harassment. “Now that I think of it . . . .I am ashamed,” was the subject heading of an email apology to Ross at the time of the incident. Cuomo acknowledged the incident that was witnessed by Ross’s husband, prompting them to suddenly leave the ABC party at a bar on the Upper West Side. Cuomo apparently told Ross he could do it because she was no longer his boss.
What makes the incident so egregious is the way CNN deals with sexual harassment or other sexually-related incidents from past or current employees. Chris said during the primetime broadcast he would not cover allegations against his brother out of some family loyalty, asking his audience to understand. Chris never disclosed to his audience his own past behavior with inappropriate sexual groping. Ross claims that Cuumo sent her an apology email about an hour after the incident, realizing the potentially career-ending consequences. Ross recalled, Chris “sexually harassed me at a going away party for an ABC colleague . . .” Ross said. She recalled, “whether Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttocks,” Ross said, embarrassing Cuomo.
Were it not for Chris deciding to boycott coverage on his brother Andrew’s sexual harassment claims, Ross may have kept her secret quiet. But once Chris decided to stonewall the story, she decided to come forward. “I can do this now that you’re no longer my boss,” Cuomo told Ross at the time, recalling Chris’s “cocky arrogance.” Ross, replied, “No you can’t,” she said. “pushing him off me the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had see the entire episode at close range. We quickly let,” Ross recalled. Ross expressed confusion when she said she didn’t think Chris groping her was “sexual.” “Never thought that Mr. Cuomo’s behavior was sexual in nature. Whether he understood it at the time or not, his form of sexual harassment was a hostile act mean to diminish and belittle his female former boss in from of the staff,” Ross said, having difficulty with the world “sexual.”
Cuomo’s behavior was 100% sexual, by anyone’s definition, whether Ross thought it was sexual or not. There’s noting arousing about being sexually assaulted, only embarrassment and humiliation. Coming forward now, Ross helps the discussion for untold numbers of women or men facing sexual harassment in the workplace or other settings. “As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it,” Cuomo said, cleverly discounting his action as non-sexual. Ross clearly doesn’t understand why sexual harassment is always an inappropriate sexual behavior. Because she had a neutral response or one of revulsion doesn’t mean that grabbing he as was not sexual. Chris now looks for anything exculpatory for his TV audience.
Rushing to agree with Ross that the incident was “not sexual,” Cumo did exactly what Ross said in issuing an email apology one hour later. Ross called Cuomo’s email, “an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability.” Watching Chris agree with Ross that the incident was “not sexual” shows how insincere his apology, more concerned with damage control than admitting anything about the incident. Chris had no comment when his CNN colleague chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was caught on masturbating on Zoom Conferencing, prompting CNN and the New Yorker to suspend him Oct. 19, 2020. Cuomo had no comment about Toobin because he didn’t want viewers asking why he won’t comment about his brother Andrew, accused by multiple women of sexual harassment. Ross wants Cuomo to “journalistically repent” for his conduct.
Ross came forward with her story in a New York Times guest essay to set the record straight, after Chris refused in his primetime CNN show to address his brother Andrew’s sexual harassment issues. Ross said she doesn’t want Chris to lose his job at CNN, something over which she has no say. Judging by how Chris plays a righteous journalist fighting for human and civil rights, his CNN audience can’t possibly ignore Ross’s story, exposing for all to see at least one episode of blatant sexual harassment. What Ross means by Chris “journalistically repenting” is anyone’s guess. She clearly came forward with her story to expose his hypocrisy for not covering his brother’s well-documented sexual harassment history. After letting Toobin back into the fold, it’s doubtful CNN’s CEO Jeff Zucker will do anything to Chris, unless of course other women have the courage to come forward.
