New Year's Eve coverage isn't really news.
Standards for news coverage don't have to apply to entertainment programs, even if some of the personnel overlap.
But I take your point about Uncle Walter. Based on his reaction, it didn't look like Anderson Cooper agreed, either, except that he knew ahead of time that he was being paid to be a "Good Sport". Past performances had been limited to Griffin's vocabulary and removing her own clothes. Playing with somebody else's body is fundamentally different.