The firing of Chris Licht as CEO of CNN is not the end of the chaos for the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

Readers will remember that the disaster dominos really began falling for CNN during the Covid lockdowns. That’s when we were all treated to the clown show of having Chris Cuomo interview his own brother, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo.

As time went on, we learned that Chris was doing much more than just interviewing Governor Big Brother on TV. When Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandals broke, Chris sat in on the strategy sessions advising his brother. Chris Cuomo’s role was exposed in May of 2021, and he apologized on air for putting his colleagues in “a bad spot.” But then Chris was fired several months later, in December of 2021, without a clear reason why (even though he had been credibly accused of his own sexual harassment scandal). The timing of Chris Cuomo’s firing simply seemed odd. Well, the internal investigation into Chris Cuomo revealed the dirty laundry about Jeff Zucker and Allison Gollust‘s long affair. We also learned how deeply tied Allison Gollust was to Andrew Cuomo – she was a former staffer, and had helped “book” Andrew on CNN during the pandemic.

The Cravath investigators also uncovered extensive written communications between Governor Cuomo and Ms. Gollust, who had briefly worked for the governor in late 2012 and early 2013, the people said.”

It wasn’t clear what all of those communications were about.”

But investigators found messages during the pandemic in which Governor Cuomo informed Ms. Gollust about three specific subjects that he wanted to be covered during a March 28, 2020, appearance at CNN, the people said.”

They said those topics included his recent phone conversation with Mr. Trump and the effect of New York’s being placed under lockdown.”

Ms. Gollust then sent messages to CNN staff requesting that the governor be asked about those subjects.”

The Cravath lawyers reviewed broadcast transcripts that showed that the anchor asked about the subjects that Ms. Gollust had put forward, the people said.”

Ms. Heller, the spokeswoman for Ms. Gollust, said that Ms. Gollust “acted as the principal booker for Governor Cuomo during the early days of the pandemic” and that her role was “well known by the entire network.”

There was quite the cozy relationship between CNN leadership and the Governor’s Mansion, and it wasn’t all through Chris Cuomo. Which leads us to the here and now, where CNN is a chaos show and Chris Cuomo is pursing legal action over his firing from the network. That case is heading into arbitration, and apparently will reveal a whole new dimension to the entire CNN mess.

Later this month, the company will begin arbitration with former host Chris Cuomo over his $125 million claim he was wrongly fired in in 2021. The New York proceeding includes previously undisclosed text messages in which CNN’s parent company, then known as WarnerMedia, sought to use the news network’s close relationship with then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — Chris’ brother — to advance Warner’s commercial interests.”

The September 22, 2020 texts are between Governor Cuomo and CNN’s then-chief marketing officer, Allison Gollust. She had left his office years earlier for CNN but kept in frequent touch, helping to arrange appearances on CNN shows and smoothing over bumps when the governor was double-booked on other networks.”

But while Gollust was assisting the network’s programming side, that day she crossed over into advocating for the business interests of CNN’s parent company, texting a request that the governor speak to WarnerMedia’s studio chief, Ann Sarnoff.”

“She’s bummed you don’t open theaters in NY, but perhaps you can hear her out,” Gollust said in the message, which was read to Semafor by a person with firsthand access to the exchange.”

The next day, Cuomo heeded Gollust’s request and called Sarnoff, who lobbied the governor to loosen restrictions on movie theaters, according to a person familiar with the exchange.”

Now, this is all occuring before the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. So, why would WarnerMedia be using Allison Gollust for access to Andrew Cuomo, asking to get movie theaters opened up during the pandemic?

Reopening theaters was a priority at the time for WarnerMedia. At the behest of director Christopher Nolan, the company was trying to juice ticket sales for Tenet, his trippy, big-budget science fiction epic, which the studio had hoped would be its summer blockbuster — even as CNN warned Americans about the threat of Covid-19. Theaters had reopened on a state-by-state basis, and New York’s governor had lagged behind other states that had allowed audiences back in. Just a few weeks after the call with Sarnoff, the then-governor announced that most theaters in the state outside New York City would reopen.”

Ohhh. So, WarnerMedia leveraged their connection to government through CNN, their news network, which employed not only Chris Cuomo but Allison Gollust, both who had then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ear, and pushed to get movie theaters re-opened for the benefit of WarnerMedia, now Warner Bros. Discovery? And then when Chris Cuomo was fired, the lid came off the can of worms, but CNN leadership was in the can of worms, and at the heart of Chris Cuomo’s arbitration case is that everyone knew that CNN and WarnerMedia was trying to use their connections to ANDREW Cuomo for their own financial benefit.

But whose idea was it to have Gollust connect Ann Sarnoff with Andrew Cuomo? Jeff Zucker was head of CNN, not WarnerMedia. The WarnerMedia CEO at the time was Jason Kilar, who left just before the merger with Discovery was complete, leaving Discovery CEO David Zaslav as the new head of the combined Warner Bros. Discovery company. Kilar has apparently washed his hands of everything. Zaslav is the one who just fired Chris Licht, and is seemingly more interested in the movie side of the business than the news side. Well, now he has quite a headache incoming, because CNN is a mess and the dirty laundry is about to get more air time in court.

But Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav’s decision to fire Chris Licht has further complicated the messy arbitration. That’s because CNN and its parent company have fired many of the people the media companies now hope will represent them.”

Zucker and Gollust are preparing to answer questions about the circumstances around Cuomo’s departure, two sources familiar with their plans told Semafor.”

Another key witness, former CNN head of strategic communications Matt Dornic, had already begun preparing for the hearings before he was fired on Wednesday along with his boss Licht. One person familiar with the plans said former Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter has been subpoenaed and could also be called as a witness, though it’s unclear whether Stelter will be asked to answer questions. Stelter was laid off by Licht last year amid cost cutting and a broader ideological realignment that targeted anti-Trump CNN personalities.”

There are bizarre complications on the other side as well. Attorney Bryan Freedman, who is representing Cuomo, also signed on to help former host Don Lemon after he was fired by Licht. When Lemon needed PR help around his exit, he hired Gollust, who will presumably be questioned by Freedman during the arbitration hearings.”

My word, what an incestuous tangled web all these people are involved in! They seemingly know no one outside their own precious little circle, and think everything was sunshine and roses when Jeff Zucker was in charge, Covid was at its height and their ratings were great, and Andrew Cuomo got to plant his own questions.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, CNN is a toxic disaster zone, and there is no saving the place. There was already speculation that Zaslav would need to “gut” CNN and start over, and that was before Chris Licht was fired and these new details began emerging. At this point, CNN staff should start brushing up their resumes and their LinkedIn profiles. Who knows how much longer the network is going to last?

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click