Cuomo Blasts Mediaite, Don Lemon for Abandoning ‘Ethics’ for ‘Profit’

It’s probably safe to say that the work bromance shared between former CNN colleagues Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon was over. During the Monday night edition of Cuomo’s eponymous show, the NewsNation host blasted social media algorithms for feeding people largely hate and animus. He quickly pivoted to calling out Mediaite for feeding into it by running an article about Don Lemon attacking President Trump for his “pee pee,” as Cuomo put it.

“And I will tell you what the algorithm will not,” Cuomo proclaimed in his opening monologue. “The online reactions to these tragedies are part of the problem. Selective outrage calculated for clicks, playing to social media platforms that amplify animus by design.”

It was that design, Cuomo argued, that was responsible for why things seeming so bad and getting worse:

In fact, a big reason that it seems the bad guys are winning – and I don’t just mean bad people; I mean, bad ideas, bad manners, bad takes, bad fakes, bad everything is because we still allow the most dominant media tool in the history of the world, social media, to design algorithms that preference the profane, insults, anger, outrage. The more provocative, the more profit, the more it is amplified and delivered it to everybody that they can. That is the game and everyone is playing, which is why the media overall is playing to those algorithms.

Using mocking finger quotes, he took aim “a media websites like Mediaite” for feeding into the algorithms. Specifically, he drew his viewers’ attention to an on-screen graphic that showed Mediaite’s reporting about obscene comments Lemon (Cuomo’s former handoff banter buddy) made about Trump’s genitals:

I mean, I remember a day when you would not have a [uses finger quotes] media websites like Mediaite featuring – as part of a commentary in a situation like this – a guy saying F you to the president of the United States and making fun of the size of his pee pee. This is what Mediaite believes is worthy to feature as a critique of the president in a situation where someone is found murdered?

“No, of course not,” Cuomo answered his own question. “They’ve surrendered value, ethics, anything like that for profit.”

It’s worth noting that Mediaite was owned by Cuomo’s former NewsNation buddy Dan Abrams.

Insisting he was not condoning it but rather saying he understood why they were acting that way, Cuomo pointed out that that was the incentive structure:

And of course they would. It’s called the news business, it’s called the media business. They want the clicks, so does he [President Trump]. That’s why he said what he said. They’re both right. Look, it’d be easy to say, ‘no, they both suck. This is terrible. They should be better than that.’ But they’re not wrong about how to get more reach. This is what is rewarded! That’s what sucks.

Elsewhere in his opener, while other outlets were still playing the ‘we don’t know their motive’ game when it came to ISIS terrorist attack in Bondi Beach, Australia, Cuomo didn’t pull his punches when blaming Islamic extremism.

“And while calling people Islamophobic may work for the algorithm. It doesn’t work for me,” he proclaimed. “Extreme Islamists are the enemy of Muslims and Christians and Jews alike. It is not Jews attacking Christmas festivals and terrorizing towns all over the globe. It is extreme Islamism.”

The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:

NewsNation’s Cuomo
December 15, 2025
8:03:30 p.m. Eastern

(…)

CHRIS CUOMO: society. And I will tell you what the algorithm will not. The online reactions to these tragedies are part of the problem. Selective outrage calculated for clicks, playing to social media platforms that amplify animus by design.

In fact, a big reason that it seems the bad guys are winning –and I don’t just mean bad people; I mean, bad ideas, bad manners, bad takes, bad fakes, bad everything is because we still allow the most dominant media tool in the history of the world, social media, to design algorithms that preference the profane, insults, anger, outrage. The more provocative, the more profit, the more it is amplified and delivered it to everybody that they can. That is the game and everyone is playing, which is why the media overall is playing to those algorithms.

I mean, I remember a day when you would not have a [uses finger quotes] media websites like Mediaite featuring – as part of a commentary in a situation like this – a guy saying F you to the president of the United States and making fun of the size of his pee pee. This is what Mediaite believes is worthy to feature as a critique of the president in a situation where someone is found murdered? No, of course not. They know better than this but they have surrendered this subjective. They’ve surrendered value, ethics, anything like that for profit.

And of course they would. It’s called the news business, it’s called the media business. They want the clicks, so does he [President Trump]. That’s why he said what he said. They’re both right.

Look, it’d be easy to say, ‘no, they both suck. This is terrible. They should be better than that.’ But they’re not wrong about how to get more reach. This is what is rewarded! That’s what sucks. And by the way, they’re no different than the President. He says what he says to provoke for profit. I’m not saying I like it. I’m not saying I condone it. I’m saying I understand why they do it.

And yes, I do believe there is a link. I think social media is not just a reflection of us. I think it’s a fun house mirror. I think it is perverting us and its exaggerating us in our most grotesque form.

(…)

And while calling people Islamophobic may work for the algorithm. It doesn’t work for me. Extreme Islamism is not me condemning all Muslims. It’s protecting Muslims from this fringe. Okay? Extreme Islamists are the enemy of Muslims and Christians and Jews alike. It is not Jews attacking Christmas festivals and terrorizing towns all over the globe. It is extreme Islamism.

And no, it is not simply ‘in solidarity with Gaza,’ because they’re attacking everywhere, places that are pro-Palestinian and places that aren’t. And if Gaza were such a rallying cause, why do so many Arab countries refused to take them in?

(…)