On Wednesday, CNN’s Grand Poobah Jeff Zicker was fired for secretly having an affair with a subordinate. This affair was not known to anyone ( It’s always an open secret in the Media). The relationship started 25 years ago, but it changed after COVID ( CNN’s Jeff Zucker Resigns Following Revelations of an Inappropriate Working Relationship), as we are told.
WarnerMedia sent Jason Kilar, its CEO, to help smoothen the rough edges and unravel the twisted knickers from the incompetents. WarnerMedia should have sent the majority of its “talent” to the unemployment lines with Zucker, rather than paying their salaries and watching them snivel. Jake Tapper might have helped to solve the corporate-sponsored crying jag.
Perhaps you don’t.
The Post learned that Chris Cuomo won’t get more than half the $18 million he seeks as a settlement for his feud with CNNÂ after Jeff Zucker has resigned.
Sources told The Post that Zucker fell on his sword to prevent a potential Cuomo lawsuit against CNN. Sources said that the draft of a lawsuit did not include Zucker’s name.
Sources say that Zucker’s resignation was part of a reach with AT&T chief John Stankey. According to sources, Zucker would give up CNN and Stankey would agree with Cuomo.
These sources claim that this would ensure that the public is not exposed to Cuomo’s damaging accusations against Zucker.
Let me just say, “Stankey”, might be the most memorable name for a Fortune 500 CEO.
Sources said that Zucker had to pay the price for stepping down from his position as the top dog at a global TV network. However, he agreed to keep some of his privacy in order to leave quickly and without fighting.
Zucker claimed he resigned due to his romantic relationship with Allison Gollust, but he did not disclose this. According to The Post, Cuomo claims that Zucker’s misdeeds extend beyond the suit draft that has not been filed.
The “Chris Cuomo pulling down the temple down” story is, on the whole, a bit too familiar. It’s hard to believe that Cuomo is not doing something more important than that. The “I didn’t tell them about the mistress of a quarter-century” excuse is absurd considering all the facts surrounding the two lovebirds.
However, sources close to Zucker and Gollust from their time at The Today Show in the mid-Nineties refute the memo’s statements. These sources tell Rolling Stone that Zucker and Gollust were romantically involved in 1996 when Gollust was a trainee in NBC’s corporate communications group. He was also the married executive producer for The Today Show. One insider says that Jeff was considered untouchable even though it was the most secretive. “And their statements in the memo are total bullshit.”
I don’t think Zucker’s resignation will stop Cuomo from fighting for $18 million he believes he owes him. Or from him trying to burn CNN down while collecting. This is especially after the abuse he received from his former colleagues in the meeting with WarnerMedia’s Kilar. I believe that any misdeeds committed by Zucker as CNN’s head remain subject to legal action regardless of Zucker’s employment status. It is difficult to imagine any information worth $9 million and Jeff Zucker’s heads in a tasteful basket that wouldn’t be worth $18million and Zucker’s heads.
Perhaps Chris Cuomo is hiding something and will decide that half-a-loaf better than mutually assured destruction.
