For coronavirus coverage, CNN lifted a six-year ban on Chris Cuomo interviewing brother Andrew Cuomo

The New York Times

At the end of 2013, CNN executives told Chris Cuomo that he could no longer interview his brother, who became New York governor in 2011. "All that changed on Wednesday, March 11," reports Ben Smith. "Andrew Cuomo had become too central to the coronavirus story to ignore, and Chris Cuomo’s bosses at CNN gave him the green light. So in a series of four riveting interviews, Andrew Cuomo, 62, delivered the scary reality of the pandemic to his brother’s audience. He also bragged that he is their mother’s favorite and that Chris — Christopher, he calls him — was the family 'meatball.' When the governor’s audio finally dropped, Chris delivered an aside: 'This is a great chance for me to say some things to him.' The Cuomo brothers’ show became a deeper drama last week when Chris Cuomo, 49, revealed his coronavirus diagnosis. He had lost 13 pounds in three days. He chipped a tooth one night when he was in terrible pain. On Thursday, he called into his brother’s daily news conference....The sick guy in his basement roasting his brother is not exactly high-minded journalism. Imagine the reaction, if, say, a Trump family member interviewed the president on Fox News. But it is moving television. And more than anything, it reflects the instincts and inclinations of Jeff Zucker, the morning show producer-turned-corporate executive who now runs CNN."

ALSO:

• Chris Cuomo interviewing Andrew Cuomo has raised journalism ethics concerns: “There are plenty of ways Chris Cuomo could communicate about his health with CNN viewers while also taking time to recuperate," says Columbia Journalism Review's Jon Allsop. "While he’s out, a colleague could talk with his brother.”
• Chris Cuomo should stay in bed -- he's setting a bad example working with coronavirus: "However well-intentioned they surely are, Cuomo and his champions are modeling something else: a pervasive, troublesome, even dangerous attitude about the virtues of working through illness," says Joanna Weiss. "Even if he doesn’t risk infecting anyone, as he broadcasts alone from his basement lair, Cuomo’s presence on TV reinforces the very American pressure to work even when you’re sick, at a moment when lives depend on the opposite: people feeling comfortable enough to take off of work when they feel even slightly ill."
• "Big Cuomo Energy" is sweeping America: Viewers have become obsessed with the Cuomos' comedic chemistry