Reporting on yesterday's train derailment in New York, CNN host Chris Cuomo found himself interviewing his own brother, the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. Fellow journalists lit up the Twitter airwaves with disapproval over the blatant conflict of interest.

The Huffington Post also jumped aboard.

Journalists usually refrain from directly interviewing their family members, even in normal breaking news situations…The interview was probably not markedly different from any other one that the governor was doing that morning, and it's unlikely that Cuomo would interview his brother about any major political issues, but the point of keeping family members out of these things is to ensure that nobody has a chance to jump to any conclusions about favoritism.

Fox News' Greta Van Susteren defected saying she did not see the problem.

I don’t have any problem with CNN’s Cuomo interviewing his brother NY Governor Cuomo about the train crash — some do, but I don’t. Should Cuomo have denied his viewers an opportunity to hear from the Governor of New York state about breaking news because they are brothers? or let the viewers hear it?  I think more news is better than less. (And since when should media critics decide what you hear? Can’t you decide yourself?)

Chris Cuomo emailed a defense to The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove.

Obviously I did the intv because it was non political, and frankly, I invite the criticism — because it exposes the hollowness of a lot of what is out there. Critics say my intv was no diff than any other and then criticize anyway. Think about that. I get the obvious suspicion, but the media has to do better than simply cater to the obvious…and pawn off negativity as a proxy for insight.