Chris “Fredo” Cuomo finally got that ride out on the lake and was given his final discharge from CNN, getting fired from the network yesterday.

The response from CNN’s media correspondent Brian Stelter was both hilarious and hypocritical at the same time. CNN broke the news on-air on a show that about 14 people watch — Jim Acosta’s show. Brian Stelter was his guest to comment on the firing. Stelter acted as though the fact that there were all kinds of ethical questions concerning Cuomo was just a new thing they’d discovered.

#BREAKING: I am not making this up — Jim Acosta was on the air when CNN announced that they fired Chris Cuomo, leaving him to break the news to viewers alongside Brian Stelter

Incredible. pic.twitter.com/h2gcnMh1Q3

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 4, 2021

From Fox News:

“Chris Cuomo, one of the most popular anchors at CNN, one of the best-known names in television news, violated journalistic ethics and norms not once or twice, but many times and that’s ultimately what is the result of today’s news, Jim,” Stelter told CNN weekend anchor Jim Acosta. “What we didn’t know until tonight, Jim, is that an outside law firm came in and went through the thousands of pages of text messages and sworn testimony that was released back on Monday. So there was clearly something in those documents that was found to be a serious breach of standards and practices.”

The “Reliable Sources” host dinged Cuomo for “acting like an unpaid staffer” for his brother based on the documents released by the AG despite how “it was known months ago” that the anchor was helping the governor.

Stelter told Acosta he has “no answers” as to the “additional information” CNN had learned as part of its investigation and when it would ever be made public. [….]

“I think this may be a situation where it was death by a thousand cuts, where there were just so many headaches time and time again involving Chris Cuomo that even though many viewers loved ‘Cuomo Prime Time,’ looked forward to his show, he was causing so many headaches for the network and for CNN staffers that ultimately this decision was reached,” Stelter said. “I do think, you know, this is a moment where journalistic ethics are at play. I know there were many CNN staffers very unhappy with the situation, very frustrated by Chris Cuomo. At the same time, Jim, I was hearing from some fans of Chris, some viewers who said we understood he was looking out for his family.”

“This was always a very complicated situation. But I think the text messages and the documents this week, showing very deeply involved, very cozy with the governor’s office, very improperly working with the aides, that was ultimately why this was announced tonight,” Stelter added.

Are they kidding? They’ve known this for months. Stelter says that Cuomo violated journalistic ethics many times. But previously he’s defended Cuomo, downplaying any criticism of him. In August, for example, Stelter claimed to Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” that Cuomo upheld journalistic “boundaries” when it came to his brother and minimized the conflict.

Stelter is only coming out now finally with these statements because the network has cut Cuomo loose. Some credibility from the “media” reporter. It’s not a “complicated situation” at all — unless you were trying to minimize the unethical actions of Cuomo and the network in this whole mess over the past two years. It was unethical from the moment they decided to have Chris Cuomo’s brother on his show, with the network helping to promote former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as the hero of the pandemic.

As we noted, there was also a report that CNN staffers had been pulled into the mess and were involved in “helping to smear” the accusers of Andrew Cuomo. That could come back to haunt the network in the Andrew Cuomo investigation. It finally became too much even for CNN to sweep under the rug anymore and pretend any semblance of credibility.