NEW YORK: CNN’s parent company says it has completed its investigation into circumstances surrounding the firing of anchor Chris Cuomo and ouster of network chief Jeff Zucker. But for a news organization, it has chosen to leave questions unanswered.
The internal report, commissioned in September and prepared by the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, will not be made public, WarnerMedia said on Wednesday.
WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told CNN employees late Tuesday that the report had been finished over the weekend. His memo said that marketing executive Allison Gollust, the woman whose relationship with Zucker led to his downfall, would also be leaving the company.
Kilar said the probe, based on interviews with more than 40 people and a review of over 100,000 texts and emails, “found violations of company policies, including CNN’s news standards and practices, by Jeff Zucker, Allison Gollust and Chris Cuomo.”
Cuomo, a former CNN prime-time host, was fired by Zucker in December after documents revealed how he had helped his brother, ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, strategize over how to fight charges of sexual misconduct. Zucker was forced to resign earlier this month because he had violated company policy in not revealing that his relationship with Gollust was romantic.
Kilar said in his memo that “this news is troubling, disappointing and, frankly, painful to read.”
But the statement did not specify the alleged violations of news standards. Even Kilar’s memo wasn’t completely clear — did each individual named violate both company policies and news standards? — and a WarnerMedia spokesman offered no clarification on Wednesday.
Zucker is prohibited from making further statements about his departure from CNN, according to someone familiar with the separation agreement who spoke under condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk about it.
“Jeff resigned due to an undisclosed personal relationship,” said Risa Heller, a spokeswoman for Zucker.
But a spokesman for Cuomo, Steve Goldberg, said that “it is clear this was never about an undisclosed relationship. As Mr. Cuomo has stated previously, Mr. Zucker and Ms. Gollust were not only entirely aware but fully supportive of what he was doing to help his brother. The still open question is when WarnerMedia is going to release the results of its investigation and explain its supposed basis for terminating Mr. Cuomo.”
Heller said that Zucker was never aware of the full extent to which Cuomo was helping his brother, “which is why Chris was fired.”
News organizations have taken different approaches to how it deals with investigations into the actions of its journalists. CBS News issued an extensive public report by an independent panel in 2005 dissecting a discredited story on former President George W. Bush’s National Guard service. A decade later, NBC News kept private its internal findings about how anchor Brian Williams had made inaccurate statements about things that he had covered.
The New York Times, in a story published Wednesday, offered details on a letter sent to CNN by Debra Katz, an attorney who has represented sexual harassment victims, accusing Cuomo of misconduct with a young woman when he worked at ABC News prior to joining CNN.
The letter said that years after the alleged misconduct, when the #MeToo movement was making news, Cuomo had contacted the woman about doing a CNN story on the company where she was then working, according to the Times. CNN did the story, although the woman tried to avoid contact with Cuomo, the newspaper said.
Katz wrote that the woman suspected Cuomo was trying to discourage her from coming forward to talk about the alleged misconduct, the Times said.
Katz declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Cuomo’s representatives vigorously denied the allegations of sexual misconduct and said Cuomo’s motivations in later reaching out to the woman were mischaracterized and were entirely journalistic in nature.
“He was never asked about the allegations prior to being terminated nor given an opportunity to respond to the allegations,” Goldberg said.
CNN probe complete, yet mysteries on Cuomo, Zucker remain
https://arab.news/vsuce
CNN probe complete, yet mysteries on Cuomo, Zucker remain
- WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told CNN employees late Tuesday that the report had been finished over the weekend
A look back at how Arab News marked its 50th anniversary
- In a year crowded with news, the paper still managed to innovate and leverage AI to become available in 50 languages
- Golden Jubilee Gala, held at the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh, now available to watch on YouTube
RIYADH: In 2025, the global news agenda was crowded with headlines concerning wars, elections and rapid technological change.
Inside the newsroom of Arab News, the year carried additional weight: Saudi Arabia’s first English-language daily marked its 50th anniversary.
And with an industry going through turmoil worldwide, the challenge inside the newsroom was how to turn a midlife crisis into a midlife opportunity.
For the newspaper’s team members, the milestone was less about nostalgia than about ensuring the publication could thrive in a rapidly changing and evolving media landscape.
“We did not want just to celebrate our past,” said Faisal J. Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News. “But more importantly, we were constantly thinking of how we can keep Arab News relevant for the next five decades.”
The solution, he added, came down to two words: “Artificial intelligence.”
For the Arab News newsroom, AI was not a replacement for journalism but as a tool to extend it.
“It was like having three eyes at once: one on the past, one on the present, and one on the future,” said Noor Nugali, the newspaper’s deputy editor-in-chief.
One of the first initiatives was the 50th anniversary commemorative edition, designed as a compact historical record of the region told through Arab News’ own reporting.
“It was meant to be like a mini history book, telling the history of the region using Arab News’ archive with a story from each year,” said Siraj Wahab, acting executive editor of the newspaper.
The issue, he added, traced events ranging from the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war in 1975 to the swearing-in of Donald Trump, while also paying homage to former editors-in-chief who shaped the newspaper’s direction over five decades.
The anniversary edition, however, was only one part of a broader strategy to signal Arab News’ focus on the future.
To that end, the paper partnered with Google to launch the region’s first AI-produced podcast using NotebookLM, an experimental tool that synthesizes reporting and archival material into audio storytelling.
The project marked a regional first in newsroom-led AI audio production.
The podcast was unveiled during a special 50th anniversary ceremony in mid-November, held on the sidelines of the Arab Media Forum, hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation. The event in the UAE’s commercial hub drew regional media leaders and officials.
Remarks at the event highlighted the project as an example of innovation in legacy media, positioning Arab News as a case study in digital reinvention rather than preservation alone.
“This is a great initiative, and I’m happy that it came from Arab News as a leading media platform, and I hope to see more such initiatives in the Arab world especially,” said Mona Al-Marri, director-general of the Government of Dubai Media Office, on the sidelines of the event.
“AI is the future, and no one should deny this. It will take over so many sectors. We have to be ready for it and be part of it and be ahead of anyone else in this interesting field.”
Behind the scenes, another long-form project was taking shape: a documentary chronicling Arab News’ origins and its transformation into a global, digital-first newsroom.
“While all this was happening, we were also working in-house on a documentary telling the origin story of Arab News and how it transformed under the current editor into a more global, more digital operation,” said Nugali.
The result was “Rewriting Arab News,” a documentary examining the paper’s digital transformation and its navigation of Saudi Arabia’s reforms between 2016 and 2018. The film charted editorial shifts, newsroom restructuring and the challenges of reporting during a period of rapid national change.
The documentary was screened at the Frontline Club in London, the European Union Embassy, Westminster University, and the World Media Congress in Bahrain. It later became available on the streaming platform Shahid and onboard Saudi Arabian Airlines.
It was also nominated for an Association for International Broadcasting award.
In early July, a special screening of the documentary took place at the EU Embassy in Riyadh. During the event, EU Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Christophe Farnaud described the film as an “embodiment” of the “incredible changes” that the Kingdom is undergoing.
“I particularly appreciate … the historical dimension, when (Arab News) was created in 1975 — that was also a project corresponding to the new role of the Kingdom,” Farnaud said. “Now the Kingdom has entered a new phase, a spectacular phase of transformation.”
Part of the documentary is narrated by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who in the film delves into the paper’s origins.
The grand slam of the anniversary year was the Golden Jubilee of Arab News gala, held in late September in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter.
Hosted by the Dean of Diplomatic Corps in Saudi Arabia and Ambassador of Djibouti to Riyadh Dya-Eddine Said Bamakhrama, the evening featured a keynote address by Prince Turki, who spoke about Arab News’ founding under his father, the late King Faisal, and its original mission to present the Kingdom to the English-speaking world.
Arab News was established in Jeddah in 1975 by brothers Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz under the slogan to give Arabs a voice in English while documenting the major transformations taking place across the Middle East.
The two founders were honored with a special trophy presented by Prince Turki, Assistant Media Minister Abdullah Maghlouth, Editor-in-Chief Abbas, and family member and renowned columnist Talat Hafiz on behalf of the founders.
During the gala, Abbas announced Arab News’ most ambitious expansion yet: the launch of the publication in 50 languages, unveiled later at the World Media Congress in Madrid in cooperation with Camb.AI.
The Madrid launch in October underscored Arab News’ aim to reposition itself not simply as a regional paper, but as a global platform for Saudi and Middle Eastern perspectives.
The event was attended by Princess Haifa bint Abdulaziz Al-Mogrin, the Saudi ambassador to Spain; Arab and Spanish diplomats; and senior editors and executives.
As the anniversary year concluded, Arab News released the full video of the Golden Jubilee Gala to the public for the first time, making the event accessible beyond the room in which it was held.
For a newspaper founded in an era of typewriters and wire copy, the message of its 50th year was clear: longevity alone is not enough. Relevance, the newsroom concluded, now depends on how well journalism adapts without losing sight of its past.
