CNN has bad week amid April Ryan, Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon news: ‘It was quite embarrassing’

[Vambo]

Trio of publicity nightmares, bad ratings leave cable network reeling

The CNN host is the younger brother of Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York. But Cuomo’s outburst over being referred to as “Fredo,” a reference to Fredo Corleone, the weak and facile brother in the movie “The Godfather,” has been labeled hypocritical because several CNN personalities have used the exact reference to mock President Trump’s children.

 

 

CNN’s public relations team called the remark “an ethnic slur” and Cuomo compared it to “the N-word” for Italians. But CNN and the “Cuomo Prime Time” host didn’t seem to think the word was some sort of vile smear in the past.

The New York Post unearthed an old video in which Cuomo playfully referred to himself as “Fredo” during a 2010 radio interview and CNN’s Ana Navarro used the moniker to belittle Donald Trump Jr. earlier this year on Cuomo’s very own show. Cuomo didn’t reprimand Navarro for using the term that he now feels is equivalent to “the N-word.” CNN anchor Jake Tapper has also used the term, while CNN legal analyst Paul Callan used it in an op-ed earlier this year.