CNN’s Chris Cuomo who will be jumping into the primetime cable news fray this spring, fired a shot across the bow to his future competition — Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow — in an interview with Variety by blasting them for what he sees as their overt partisanship.
“They have huge numbers. I have huge respect for their success, and I take nothing away from them,” Cuomo told Variety.
“But the point is, I don’t know where their partisan fights are getting us.”
Cuomo added that he will be aggressive in pursuing facts and eliminating bias.
“Yes, I like being aggressive. I don’t believe in faking the funk. I believe in being straight. You have to hold people to answer the questions. There is too much evasiveness, too much pandering, too much playing with the facts.
“You have to cut out the bias. It has to be a mix of brains and balls – that’s what it has to be,” he said. “You have to be ready to look people in the eye and ask them things they aren’t talking to and you have to swing to check them when they want to move on. That’s isn’t going to make you popular all of the time.”
CNN execs like Cuomo’s style, but by placing his show in the same time slot as Hannity and Maddow it makes him a sacrificial lamb in a very competitive ratings battle between the two popular cable newsers.
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