‘Network’ > Chris Cuomo

Chris Cuomo thinks he’s mad as hell, but he’s just run out of bullshit.

For many, coronavirus is breaking our brains and making us re-evaluate what is important, where our values and morals actually lie, what we’re willing to do for money.  

This seemed to be the case with CNN news anchor Chris Cuomo when he allegedly ranted about his job and wished he could tell a fat loser tire biker to go to hell after the biker confronted him for not quarantining himself after testing positive for COVID-19.  

Max Tani @maxwelltani

Chris Cuomo says he hates his job, wishes he could tell people to fuck off: “I don’t like what I do professionally. I don’t think it’s worth my time....I want to be able to tell you to go to hell, to shut your mouth.”

nypost.comCoronavirus-stricken Chris Cuomo trashes CNN gig during radio show meltdownChris Cuomo’s coronavirus-induced fever may have subsided but the CNN anchor was red hot on Monday. The longtime cable host, 49, had an existential mini-crisis on his SiriusXM show, lashing o…

Cuomo allegedly threatened the biker and then went on his radio show to say he doesn’t like what he does professionally and doesn’t value the media system that he profits from. Who knows if any of this is true, I couldn’t find the clip of his show on reddit and the NY Post is a digital rag and Cuomo already denied ever saying any of this or claimed it’s not what he meant, so whatever, but I do find the idea to be funny and infuriatingly hypocritical. 

It reminds me of Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satirical masterpiece, Network. It’s about a network anchor who loses his job due to low ratings, then threatens to blow his own brains out during a broadcast, which helps his ratings and saves his job. You probably know Network for this scene:

One of the things that is so striking about watching Network in 2020 is how well it’s aged. Despite being more than 50 years old, it’s still incredibly funny and a sharp look at the hypocrisy of broadcast news today. It predicts the wormy anger and propaganda of Fox News and Donald Trump in a sober, terrifying way. It captures our hyper-capitalistic ideology in all of its humor and horror. 

Back to the main point: Cuomo is full of shit. He’s trying to have his own low-rent Network moment without understanding the satire that the film is trying to get at. Here he is yucking it up with his brother on live television. And yet a broken clock can still be right twice a day — Network is a reminder of that.