CNN network chief Jeff Zucker sent an email to staff telling them the vast majority would not be returning to the office until the end of summer.
The email, obtained by The Daily Beast, said the staff would “not be returning to the office in any significant way” until at least September and said production would continue from home as it has been done during the coronavirus shutdown.
“Our expectation is that the rest of you will not return before early September, with a few exceptions in July for newsgathering and some in August, depending on the political conventions,” Zucker wrote, adding that these dates could change. “But, to be clear, production of our programs will continue from home, as is it is now [sic], until the end of summer.”
The Beast went on to report that “many news outlets have begun to plan out what a physical return to company offices would look like” over the past few weeks. For example, the Beast reported, “Fox News set May 4 as a target to reopen its offices, though given that New York City is closed down until May 15, the network will almost certainly push back this deadline.”
CNN recently came under fire for staging opinion anchor Chris Cuomo’s alleged emergence from quarantine. Cuomo had claimed publicly that he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and was quarantined in his basement, yet a police report from the week before stated Cuomo had been involved in an altercation with a cyclist while visiting his home in the Hamptons – 60 miles from the basement in which he was allegedly quarantined.
“Over Easter weekend, Cuomo was reportedly involved in a heated altercation that took place at his East Hampton property after a bicyclist claimed that the CNN anchor was violating quarantine guidelines that were being enforced by his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo,” Fox News reported at the time. “A 65-year-old East Hampton resident named David was riding his bike on Easter Sunday when he spotted who he thought was the CNN anchor with two women and three children outside on their property. Cuomo had been recovering from his widely publicized coronavirus diagnosis.”
The New York Post reported that Cuomo admitted to leaving his basement before his televised emergence during a rant on his SiriusXM show last week. Cuomo, according to the Post “ranted about a confrontation he had with a bike rider outside his property Easter Sunday, when the coronavirus-infected TV star was hanging out with his family.”
The bike rider, known only as David, told the Post that he hassled the CNN anchor about social distancing. Cuomo told his audience he wished he could have told the guy to “go to hell.”
“I don’t want some jackass, loser, fat-tire biker being able to pull over and get in my space and talk bulls–t to me, I don’t want to hear it,” Cuomo said. “I want to be able to tell you to go to hell, to shut your mouth … I don’t get that doing what I do for a living: me being able to tell you to shut your mouth or I will do you the way you guys do each other.”
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