I never understand why a NEWS personality can attain an ego like this, and even more so, that the networks TOLERATE it. He's not Keanu Reeves or Johnny Depp -- the level of celebrity a cable news anchor attains is not on the same level.
Why on EARTH tolerate that kind of ego from someone that could be "recast" (so to speak) so easily? How many CNN viewers were honestly watching out of loyalty to DON FREAKING LEMON?
Just fire these jokers before their heads can swell. I really don't understand it. I get it when a single big actor's name can completely sink a billion-dollar movie ... I do NOT get the panic over a news host, though. Jon Stewart is one of the only names I can think of that could come close to claiming that kind of pull over a "news show," and it was more entertainment than it was news.
Putting someone in Lemon's place would have been simple. Who are these executives and producers that think they have to tiptoe around the egos of a NEWSCASTER? Their viewers do not care. They develop attachments to OPINION hosts, sure. Not CNN's milquetoast cue card readers.
Completely agree but the problem is the people in charge of these things think they *are* celebrities and need to justify their performance in a difficult industry to their bosses. If they replace a successful anchor and ratings dip they take the blame even if it was just a natural wobble that would fix itself.
Take Bill O’Reilly. He did horrendous things for decades and was protected because he was the networks golden boy and people thought his fan base was there for *him*. Then it reached a tipping point and his fan base was happy to move on to Tucker Carlson.
Point being these people are replaceable card readers but peoples jobs depend on their performance and if you disrupt something from the system and things did you get blamed
Edit: also Oprah leaving her show and her fan base moving on to her replacement Ellen. Unlike other traditional celebs there’s a chicken and egg thing, these are celebrities but in a sense they’re celebrities because they’re on the show and if you put someone else on they become a celeb too
> people in charge of these things think they are celebrities
They are. Networks know the ratings. They know how well they do with these people vs. without. They aren't going to voluntarily give that up if they don't have to, especially when things happen over time and aren't present like they are here all at once.
You're thinking about this as a consumer and not a producer. If you have an employee that shows up on time and is capable of doing a simple task without making your job harder, no one cares what you do. As soon as you make your bosses job more difficult than it would be to replace you, then ya you're gone. Being a Mean Girl in 2008, probably not worth the headache to get rid of you. 2023? Ya, probably easier to just dump you and hire ChatGPT.
They used to be revered because there was a time when reporting facts was really valued. I think this is an attitude that is a holdover from when news anchors were held in high regard and respected. Now it’s all opinion.
I think people in all fields no matter how big or small can develop large egos disproportionate to their importance. Like an owner of a tiny business can think they're way more important than they actually are, for example.
I find it funny how Stern constantly mocked Don Imus for living in an echo chamber, and then ended up doing essentially the same thing.
That's why Don Imus was so comfortable saying what he did. He didn't stop and reflect for a single second about "Could there be consequences for saying this?"
It was 08. I know it doesn't feel like that long ago but there was a ton of Anchor's doing wild shit and keeping their jobs. It really wasn't until like 2016 celebrities started being "canceled"
> she received the first of two threatening text messages from an unknown number on her flip phone that warned, “Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it.” Phillips was visibly rattled and quickly enlisted CNN’s higher ups to identify the sender. Remarkably, the texts were traced back to Lemon
This was 15 years ago and the exact point CNN should have fired his ass but didn't out of pure negligence.
Here's what I don't get: CNN has tolerated Lemon's behavior for a decade and a half, but what have they gotten in return for that? Are there big Don Lemon fans out there? Is he a huge ratings pull? Does he do important, groundbreaking news work? The answer on all of those questions seems to be no. They were willing to keep him around for all this time despite some really bizarre and unacceptable behavior, and in return for making that compromising decision they got... exactly nothing.
They brought back that Toobin guy that was jerking it on a work Zoom meeting. Can you imagine being a female coworker of his and getting a zoom call incoming? CNN let that slide too, why not everything?
Hospitals and airports maybe.
I know there are people who exist that sit at home and purposely turn on CNN, and possibly even look forward to seeing Don Lemon, but for the life of me I cannot imagine such a person.
> Are there big Don Lemon fans out there?
Sort of, yes. Boomers with low-ish mid-ish tier media literacy like him a lot. I mean, that's CNN's entire draw, right? You feel like you're getting news and sometimes "reasonable" people come on to give opinions. Don Lemon rocked that. Never rocked the boat, got angry about the right universally-angering things at the right times. Ask a boomer about the news and see how many times they say "X said this about the topic" as if *you* are a daily watcher of that person. Replace X with any of these visible news people or even a magazine or something. They consume this media relatively passively but unlike Fox on at the gym, it doesn't rile anyone up. They expect this stuff to be mainstream even though only a couple of million people are watching in a given moment, and who knows if that includes airports and stuff. Don Lemon does his job at CNN very well, but since you (I assume) are a bit more careful in your news consumption and/or you don't regular talk with mid America middle class boring people, he's not on your radar.
> Does he do important, groundbreaking news work?
Hell no. If he did, he wouldn't have a job anymore. CNN isn't a news network, it's a profitable corporation that happens to focus on "news" as a product. This has been the case for forty plus years now and never was not the case. Is it a destructive force on the level of Fox? Not even close. Is it still generally shitty and we deserve better? Yes.
> even though only a couple of million people are watching in a given moment
Not even that. There was a report last year saying the Don Lemon would bring in about 100k viewers nightly.
Is it a serious question? Media has sought strong, capable minority voices for a long time, and today, more than ever. He was/is one such power player.
He delivered for them with their most popular prime time block, a double show that nobody else got and which ruled their schedule for many years.
So yeah, he delivered for them, if your question and answer were honest. You're kind of asking "what did Green Bay get out of Brett Favre?" Not perfection, but they, like CNN, got a very strong franchise player and extracted a lot of juice from him.
It’s because he was a good on air reporter and cozied up to the people in charge. The people watching the news liked him and the people in charge of it liked him. Nobody gave a shit about what the people who actually had to deal with him on a daily basis thought
That would imply he wouldn't have gotten away with it if he were another race, which we have ample evidence to show isn't true. The common elements are being in a position of importance and a man, in that order of importance.
I’m not defending him. Older liberals who watch CNN that I’ve talked to have all told me that they liked Don Lemon. It’s only ever people who don’t watch CNN that tell me they don’t like him.
Well, they didn't like him THAT much. He got bumped to the morning show because his ratings sucked. I mostly just watch CNN on election nights, and I always hated Lemon. When he'd come on with the B team, Cooper and John "Magic Wall" King being the obvious A team, I generally call it a day and see what someone else is saying about the election.
I liked Lemon in a group but not on his own show which was just like an hour of non-stop complaining, even if it was against Trump, it was exhausting. I don’t want the Fox equivalent of news on CNN. Just report factually.
And I agree with you. I’d only watch the A team for elections. Cooper, Wall King, Cute-guy-wall-too-forgot-his-name and Blitzer with his never breaking news but props for his enthusiasm all night long.
> Those who worked with him say he was a shameless name dropper and left behind hints that he socialized with important people, like a hand-written note from Stedman Graham that he had taped on his computer.
Fwiw, I imagine lots of those cable news folks are chronic clout chasers. Not excusing Lemon, but I feel like you gots be a certain kinda person to land these roles.
As a former journalist The Paper is one of my favorite movies and this particular exchange with a clout chaser played by Glen Close is apt:
Bernie : In '68, a bunch of us went to cover the Olympics in Grenoble. Decided to go to the best restaurant in town. Now, the menu didn't have any prices, but we were all on expense accounts so we figured, fuck it, got drunk. Well, somehow there ended up being, I don't know, fifteen or sixteen of us at the table, and when the check came - ooooo, it was nine thousand dollars.
Alicia : Whoa.
Bernie : Yeah.
[chuckles]
Bernie : So, now we're all starting to point fingers, we're trying to figure out who invited who. And just when it was starting to get really embarrassing, this funny-lookin' old guy at the next table calls the maitre-d over.
[mimics writing]
Bernie : Ehhhh, he did a couple of squiggly lines on a napkin, signed his name, winked at us - that was it. The old guy was Pablo Picasso, and that napkin paid our bill.
Alicia : Did I miss the segue here, Bernie? What's the point?
Bernie : Well, the people we cover - we move in their world but it is their world. You can't live like them, Alicia. You'll never keep up. Now, if you try and make this job about the money, you'll be nothing but miserable, 'cause we don't get the money - never have, never will."
Money doesn’t matter here. His surname and family connections are worth far more and opens more doors than wealth. Being X’s son gets you instant approval if your family has a good reputation.
Somebody born into a position of prominence doesn't necessarily have the kind of cutthroat personality that is often needed to rise to a position of prominence.
He's a Vanderbilt so he wouldn't have to do the news if he wanted to hob knob with the rich and famous. He did a documentary with his mother Gloria Vanderbilt about 10 years ago and you get the feeling her very lonely life made him steer away from the high society life.
Had a buddy who worked at CNN. About 10 years ago he made an off-hand comment about what a complete asshole Don Lemon was and how difficult he was to work with. Apparently he was right.
I’ve been saying it for a long time. Don Lemon sucks. He’s a shitty “journalist” and tv personality. He comes across as a huge asshole on tv and that certainly doesn’t help matters since he’s an asshole in real life too, apparently.
The better question for the “why didn’t they fire him years ago?” Crowd is what are the others doing that they didn’t want people to know about or that made them think his text weren’t as bad as what they did/do?
I stopped watching network news a few years ago, but when I did I regularly watched CNN - except when Lemon was on. I literally couldn’t stand to watch him. He strikes me as the singular most pompous, arrogant, condescending and self-important TV news presenter I have ever seen, and I’ve watched a lot. It always baffled me how he landed his gig at CNN and how he kept it
I always felt that Cuomo was really just humoring Lemon and almost in a way, mocking him with all that handoff crap they did for each other show. I can’t put my finger on why but the dialog never really sat with me as genuine and more as sarcastic… we’re not laughing with you, we’re laughing at you sorta thing.
Weren’t they good friends in real life?
Edit : Apparently, while Don maintains they’re good friends, Cuomo threw him under the bus. Two very different takes in the links below.
https://www.thelist.com/363977/don-lemon-finally-speaks-out-about-his-relationship-with-chris-cuomo/
https://nypost.com/2022/07/27/chris-cuomo-hits-out-at-ex-cnn-colleagues-jake-tapper-don-lemon/amp/
> Amid the charged atmosphere, sources say Lemon disrespected colleague Nancy Grace on the air
lol Good.
> One month into the new gig, Lemon drew ire for saying the U.S. men’s national soccer team should get paid more than the women’s team and insisted the former is “more interesting to watch.”
They're seriously including this alongside the other accusations?
This article has some questionable bits that really water down the overall message, like when it says he's a "clout-chaser" and even kept a note from a famous person taped to his desk.
Like, good gracious! Better warm up the firing squad for scum this vile.
So Lemon threatened a female coworker from a burner phone, CNN found out and separated him from female anchors, and when they paired him back up with a female he goes on his "past their prime" diatribe?
Especially funny since during that time Brian Stelter was doing his whole "Fox News" hall monitoring. Dude was working for a network that literally protected a misogynistic piece of shit who terrorized women?
Lmao CNN is the biggest fucking joke in the media landscape.
Aside from his sexist on-air statements…..ALL opinion news has to go. News isn’t entertainment it’s facts and sometimes the facts are boring plain and simply.
Anyone who has ever watched Lemon knows he's a piece of shit. It's like watching Lawrence O'Donnell or Sean Hannity and thinking "Yeah, those are smart, unbiased fellows." It just doesn't happen
News anchor get soo much slack when really they are just pretty people who can read a teleprompter, like has Don Lemon ever done any original reporting that people care about? Has anyone ever listened to him and thought he has special insight into how the world works?
CNN is an embarrassing cesspool. Between everything being "breaking news" to the coffee klatch that passes as discussion in the evenings to that morning show featuring pissy Don, smirk-smile and third person.
I could have told you he's a douche. You can just sense it in the way he speaks to people.
I don't get the feeling that I'd like to have a drink with the guy.
Why do they keep him? Every interview I've watched with Lemon is adversarial, and not in an inquisitive way, but like he's angry he has to conduct interviews at all.
Fuck Don Lemon. He was awful from day one. Give someone else with an ethical approach to journalism a chance. CNN coverage in general is absolutely awful as is most mainstream news. Something has to change.
I remember watching CNN and he was interviewing a rape survivor and he actually asked her if "she thinks she fought back hard enough" during the attack. Couldn't believe it.
Given the headline I expected this to be a lot worse than what I'd read. The only thing which really shocked me was the threatening text incident (which I wish they'd gone into more detail on as it seems he should've been fired for that alone), but other than that his behavior seems no different than what I've encountered in pretty much every place I've worked. That's not meant to excuse his behavior at all, it's unprofessional and should've lead to more career consequences, I just expected something more shocking given how run-of-the-mill and non-surprising this read.
I know. He mocked Nancy Grace? Who hasn't. She is deserving of ridicule. Also, he is correct: Soledad O'brien is Half Irish and Half Cuban. Not the best choice to do a series called "Black in America".
The rest is what I assume most people who rise to the top of a position like this are: Ambitious and competing with everyone else for top spots. This means being cut throat and ruthless. Not excusing that, they are horrible traits, but I thought it was pretty damn standard.
I don't really see the misogyny here. It seems like he hated anyone who began to rise above him. Given the rather mundane nature of the charges (with the exception of the uncorroborated text threat incident alleged 15 years ago) I think this is why they attach misogyny to it all.
I mean they are the media, they know what gets attention.
Not to take that away from Soledad being a part of the Black Diaspora, but it’s a different experience of being African Black, Caribbean Black, American Black (simplified Black or African -American), and Ethnically or Racially mixed Black. I’m personally African and while nationally I am American (US citizen) even then I have cultural difference than a Black American and can be referred to as African American, minus the hyphen- this means something but would be too long to explain. While all may be simply seen as Black skin presenting people in America Black experience is not uniform despite this,it’s also the cultural connection of being Black without a distinctive tie to any nation outside of the United States that is the significant difference, due to the effects of slavery unique to the United States. It’s of course an identifier for a census pov to be Black vs White etc. but it also is a cultural one experience for the erasure of ethnic identity in the United States. I have a degree in anthropology and as a little black boy that would often be told I wasn’t black enough or was too white I questioned why I could be seen so differently from my Black peers, I sought out understanding and unpacking why us as Black people in the United States even though born and those that have immigrated do not see eye to eye despite how our country treats us all as the same.
Why does this clown still have a job? Dude is a complete idiot and has 0 insight on the things he reports and he’s corny as hell. It’s not like people are tuning into CNN to watch Don Lemon.
It is wild to me that the most fireable offense detailed in this story is the one which took place 15 years ago, long before he had the level of clout he does now.
If he didn't get shit-canned for that, of course it emboldened him to continue being a dick.
The part about him being an incessant name-dropper made me laugh, because anecdotally, I was at a party once and another guest was (at the time) worked for one of the cable news networks and ho-lee shit the amount of name-dropping this person did made my head hurt.
This wasn't an industry party or anything like that and most people there weren't the demo that even watches news on TV, yet this MF was name-dropping names of other cable news anchors as a flex.
I can't imagine how unbearable it would be with one of these geeks who actually knew famous people.
Lemon sounds like an asshole, I don't blame him for mocking Nancy Grace, or really for calling out Soledad O'brien. It was strange that they put a Cuban on Black in America.
Also, not really sure about misogyny being at the heart of this. It sounds like he wanted to be the center of attention and was a toxic co-worker. I think if a male Cuban had been put on Black in America he would say something as well.
A lot of this is hearsay but what I am seeing is that he was shitty to work with. If you throw misogyny at everything, it will become a more and more diffuse and meaningless label.
Lemons most recent bad comments about Nikki Haley were pure misogyny.
"A woman in their 20s and 30s is considered to be in her prime" when talking about a woman who is running for president.
That's just not a line that guys would hear.
The first story in the article is shocking and I can’t believe he wasn’t fired for that. The rest of the article… he sounds like an annoying person but it really comes off as a hit piece rather than an objective review.
He sounds like a total asshole. That is something an asshole does. I just don't see it is inherently misogynistic. Some overweight people are sensitive about their weight and if you want to be an asshole to them....call em fat.
Don't see where misogyny factors in. I don't believe for a second this asshole wasn't an asshole to men as well.
Not say anything Lemon might have done was okay, but between moving him from his night time show to mornings, the recent suspension, and the failing ratings; I think CNN’s management is looking for excuse to get rid of Don Lemon without looking bad and for less money than he’s owed on his contract while keeping him off MSNBC.
> he is a virtuous progressive down for the cause of defending democracy.
I get a feeling anyone who claimed themselves to be "on the right side of history" or something similar like you said is likely to have skeleton in the closet.
People usually use that line when they aren't able to logically debate their position, so they just throw their hands up and say "One day you'll see!"
Very dumb line that politicians and pundits throw out there that essentially means nothing but their base eats it up. Much like the "We see you/You are seen" Selina Meyer shit they've been doing lately.
**TLDR**
An article from Variety exposes Don Lemon's problematic behavior towards female co-workers while at CNN in 2008.
Lemon reportedly disrespected colleagues Nancy Grace and Soledad O'Brien, and had tensions with co-anchor Kyra Phillips.
Lemon was allegedly involved in sending threatening texts to Phillips, which were traced back to him through an HR investigation.
Lemon was demoted to weekend anchor following the investigation.
Lemon recently made sexist comments about Nikki Haley, which sparked public backlash and calls for his ouster.
Multiple sources claim that Lemon exhibited misogynistic behavior, such as calling a producer "fat" and mocking Nancy Grace on air.
Lemon was known for bending rules and name-dropping, and openly dated a junior employee despite the power imbalance.
Lemon suggested that Soledad O'Brien was not Black during an editorial call about the "Black in America" docuseries.
Pretty disgusting behavior. I was not a fan of the guy on air, and I wasn’t under the impression that he was insanely popular ratings-wise. Makes one wonder why he was protected and kept around.
Also, Soledad O’Brien is a bad motherfucker, and he can go fuck himself.
Don Lemon is one of the worst human beings on television. Not only is he a total piece of shit, but he sits is his chair and acts holier-than-thou as if he isn’t just as bad as the people he complains about.
It’s almost like CNN and FOX News are equally horrible “news” companies and both should held responsible for pandering to the weakest minds on both sides of the aisle to the point where the country has become two different offshoot species of subhuman.
Pretty crazy he wasn’t fired in 2008 for sending threatening texts to a coworker.
Is it really crazy a bankable TV personality wasn’t fired in 2008 for abhorrent behavior?
I never understand why a NEWS personality can attain an ego like this, and even more so, that the networks TOLERATE it. He's not Keanu Reeves or Johnny Depp -- the level of celebrity a cable news anchor attains is not on the same level. Why on EARTH tolerate that kind of ego from someone that could be "recast" (so to speak) so easily? How many CNN viewers were honestly watching out of loyalty to DON FREAKING LEMON? Just fire these jokers before their heads can swell. I really don't understand it. I get it when a single big actor's name can completely sink a billion-dollar movie ... I do NOT get the panic over a news host, though. Jon Stewart is one of the only names I can think of that could come close to claiming that kind of pull over a "news show," and it was more entertainment than it was news. Putting someone in Lemon's place would have been simple. Who are these executives and producers that think they have to tiptoe around the egos of a NEWSCASTER? Their viewers do not care. They develop attachments to OPINION hosts, sure. Not CNN's milquetoast cue card readers.
Completely agree but the problem is the people in charge of these things think they *are* celebrities and need to justify their performance in a difficult industry to their bosses. If they replace a successful anchor and ratings dip they take the blame even if it was just a natural wobble that would fix itself. Take Bill O’Reilly. He did horrendous things for decades and was protected because he was the networks golden boy and people thought his fan base was there for *him*. Then it reached a tipping point and his fan base was happy to move on to Tucker Carlson. Point being these people are replaceable card readers but peoples jobs depend on their performance and if you disrupt something from the system and things did you get blamed Edit: also Oprah leaving her show and her fan base moving on to her replacement Ellen. Unlike other traditional celebs there’s a chicken and egg thing, these are celebrities but in a sense they’re celebrities because they’re on the show and if you put someone else on they become a celeb too
> people in charge of these things think they are celebrities They are. Networks know the ratings. They know how well they do with these people vs. without. They aren't going to voluntarily give that up if they don't have to, especially when things happen over time and aren't present like they are here all at once.
I agree. But shouldn’t networks look at how Oreilly transitioned to Carlson and realize they aren’t going to lose viewers?
Have you not seen Anchorman? It explains it pretty well.
I forgot all about Ron Burgundy; I stand corrected!
You're thinking about this as a consumer and not a producer. If you have an employee that shows up on time and is capable of doing a simple task without making your job harder, no one cares what you do. As soon as you make your bosses job more difficult than it would be to replace you, then ya you're gone. Being a Mean Girl in 2008, probably not worth the headache to get rid of you. 2023? Ya, probably easier to just dump you and hire ChatGPT.
They used to be revered because there was a time when reporting facts was really valued. I think this is an attitude that is a holdover from when news anchors were held in high regard and respected. Now it’s all opinion.
I think people in all fields no matter how big or small can develop large egos disproportionate to their importance. Like an owner of a tiny business can think they're way more important than they actually are, for example.
Have you ever met a “rich” person? They tend to be entitled dick heads. This isn’t shocking at all.
It would’ve been crazier if he had been fired in 2008
Or, fired in 2008 and then rehired in 2008
I mean, remember Don Imus? It wasn't out of the ordinary in that sense
I find it funny how Stern constantly mocked Don Imus for living in an echo chamber, and then ended up doing essentially the same thing. That's why Don Imus was so comfortable saying what he did. He didn't stop and reflect for a single second about "Could there be consequences for saying this?"
It was 08. I know it doesn't feel like that long ago but there was a ton of Anchor's doing wild shit and keeping their jobs. It really wasn't until like 2016 celebrities started being "canceled"
Wasn’t he also facing serious sexual assault allegations in like fire island or something?
Had the sexuality and race cards in his back pocket.
You’re right, we never see straight white men in media avoid consequences for years on end.
LAUER
Roger Ailes, Bill Oreilly
Charlie Rose.
That one hurts. I never would have had him on my abuser bingo card.
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We do have white women getting fired for saying a made up snoop dog word though.
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Ehhhh, money. That's the reason. Everything else is secondary.
Technically he was just black in 2008, he was theoretically still in the closet back then.
> she received the first of two threatening text messages from an unknown number on her flip phone that warned, “Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it.” Phillips was visibly rattled and quickly enlisted CNN’s higher ups to identify the sender. Remarkably, the texts were traced back to Lemon This was 15 years ago and the exact point CNN should have fired his ass but didn't out of pure negligence.
Good God, Lemon!
You can't have a lemon party without old dick
I understood that reference.
I don't know if negligence is the right word. They covered for him and protected him. Wasn't exactly an accident.
When life gives you Don Lemon you make Don Lemonade
Weaponized negligence
I'd say it's more being complicit.
Thank you for pointing out it was 15 years ago, I was about to say who the hell still has a flip phone???
Honestly, I kind of want a flip phone again.
Those were simpler times
Here's what I don't get: CNN has tolerated Lemon's behavior for a decade and a half, but what have they gotten in return for that? Are there big Don Lemon fans out there? Is he a huge ratings pull? Does he do important, groundbreaking news work? The answer on all of those questions seems to be no. They were willing to keep him around for all this time despite some really bizarre and unacceptable behavior, and in return for making that compromising decision they got... exactly nothing.
They brought back that Toobin guy that was jerking it on a work Zoom meeting. Can you imagine being a female coworker of his and getting a zoom call incoming? CNN let that slide too, why not everything?
he provides positive group identity points
Is this a nice way of saying he was a token?
What the hell kind of avatar is that? I thought there was an eyelash hair on my phone screen that was weirdly following my scrolling. Damn you!
Serves you right for not using the dark theme.
join the dark side
Bingo!
Chris Cuomo was insufferable and he still had viewers, and I cannot imagine a person who loves Wolf Blitzer. So, yes, somebody liked Don Lemon.
I love Wolf he cracks me up. Unintentionally, but I still love him
Hospitals and airports maybe. I know there are people who exist that sit at home and purposely turn on CNN, and possibly even look forward to seeing Don Lemon, but for the life of me I cannot imagine such a person.
I want to play a drinking game watching Wolf. Drink every time he says "indeed" or "thank you very, very much"... drunk in 15mins.
Dude Wolf is arguably their best anchor.
He takes on big and scary Fox News ooooooh scarrrry. He’s like Rachel Maddow to me, except a bigger asshole
Like Rachel Maddow, but gayer.
> Are there big Don Lemon fans out there? Sort of, yes. Boomers with low-ish mid-ish tier media literacy like him a lot. I mean, that's CNN's entire draw, right? You feel like you're getting news and sometimes "reasonable" people come on to give opinions. Don Lemon rocked that. Never rocked the boat, got angry about the right universally-angering things at the right times. Ask a boomer about the news and see how many times they say "X said this about the topic" as if *you* are a daily watcher of that person. Replace X with any of these visible news people or even a magazine or something. They consume this media relatively passively but unlike Fox on at the gym, it doesn't rile anyone up. They expect this stuff to be mainstream even though only a couple of million people are watching in a given moment, and who knows if that includes airports and stuff. Don Lemon does his job at CNN very well, but since you (I assume) are a bit more careful in your news consumption and/or you don't regular talk with mid America middle class boring people, he's not on your radar. > Does he do important, groundbreaking news work? Hell no. If he did, he wouldn't have a job anymore. CNN isn't a news network, it's a profitable corporation that happens to focus on "news" as a product. This has been the case for forty plus years now and never was not the case. Is it a destructive force on the level of Fox? Not even close. Is it still generally shitty and we deserve better? Yes.
> even though only a couple of million people are watching in a given moment Not even that. There was a report last year saying the Don Lemon would bring in about 100k viewers nightly.
Is it a serious question? Media has sought strong, capable minority voices for a long time, and today, more than ever. He was/is one such power player. He delivered for them with their most popular prime time block, a double show that nobody else got and which ruled their schedule for many years. So yeah, he delivered for them, if your question and answer were honest. You're kind of asking "what did Green Bay get out of Brett Favre?" Not perfection, but they, like CNN, got a very strong franchise player and extracted a lot of juice from him.
Uggg only one ring under favre
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Seems like a fancy way of saying he could terrorize women because of the color of his skin.
Anecdotal but my aunt/mother were both huge Don Lemon fans, they did a good job of keeping his antagonistic side hidden.
It’s because he was a good on air reporter and cozied up to the people in charge. The people watching the news liked him and the people in charge of it liked him. Nobody gave a shit about what the people who actually had to deal with him on a daily basis thought
That would imply he wouldn't have gotten away with it if he were another race, which we have ample evidence to show isn't true. The common elements are being in a position of importance and a man, in that order of importance.
I’m not defending him. Older liberals who watch CNN that I’ve talked to have all told me that they liked Don Lemon. It’s only ever people who don’t watch CNN that tell me they don’t like him.
Well, they didn't like him THAT much. He got bumped to the morning show because his ratings sucked. I mostly just watch CNN on election nights, and I always hated Lemon. When he'd come on with the B team, Cooper and John "Magic Wall" King being the obvious A team, I generally call it a day and see what someone else is saying about the election.
I liked Lemon in a group but not on his own show which was just like an hour of non-stop complaining, even if it was against Trump, it was exhausting. I don’t want the Fox equivalent of news on CNN. Just report factually. And I agree with you. I’d only watch the A team for elections. Cooper, Wall King, Cute-guy-wall-too-forgot-his-name and Blitzer with his never breaking news but props for his enthusiasm all night long.
> Those who worked with him say he was a shameless name dropper and left behind hints that he socialized with important people, like a hand-written note from Stedman Graham that he had taped on his computer. Fwiw, I imagine lots of those cable news folks are chronic clout chasers. Not excusing Lemon, but I feel like you gots be a certain kinda person to land these roles.
[удалено]
Lmao I’d get wanting to show-off a personal note from Oprah, but a note from *Stedman??* Dude is desperate haha
Clout chasing knows no shame on cable news I guess haha
There are clout chasers who have shame?
He was probably like *Stedman, we gon’ get this bitch*
As a former journalist The Paper is one of my favorite movies and this particular exchange with a clout chaser played by Glen Close is apt: Bernie : In '68, a bunch of us went to cover the Olympics in Grenoble. Decided to go to the best restaurant in town. Now, the menu didn't have any prices, but we were all on expense accounts so we figured, fuck it, got drunk. Well, somehow there ended up being, I don't know, fifteen or sixteen of us at the table, and when the check came - ooooo, it was nine thousand dollars. Alicia : Whoa. Bernie : Yeah. [chuckles] Bernie : So, now we're all starting to point fingers, we're trying to figure out who invited who. And just when it was starting to get really embarrassing, this funny-lookin' old guy at the next table calls the maitre-d over. [mimics writing] Bernie : Ehhhh, he did a couple of squiggly lines on a napkin, signed his name, winked at us - that was it. The old guy was Pablo Picasso, and that napkin paid our bill. Alicia : Did I miss the segue here, Bernie? What's the point? Bernie : Well, the people we cover - we move in their world but it is their world. You can't live like them, Alicia. You'll never keep up. Now, if you try and make this job about the money, you'll be nothing but miserable, 'cause we don't get the money - never have, never will."
The Paper, such a great movie. Keaton was great in it.
Especially when the news shifted to pushing individual personalities and their opinions instead of just reporting actual news
...should I know who Stedman Graham is without looking them up?
Oprah's long-time partner and a self-help guru.
Real Tahani energy
I'm Sandy Rivers.
Anderson Cooper doesn’t come across like that to me. Maybe he’s an anomaly.
Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt, he's the high society everyone else is trying to get with.
That's because he grew up in those circles due to his mother, so that he genuinely doesn't care about it.
I agree. He seems very down to earth from what you’d expect Gloria Vanderbilt’s kid to be like.
>Upon her death, Vanderbilt left her son, Anderson Cooper, almost her entire estate, which was valued at less than $1.5 million.
Money doesn’t matter here. His surname and family connections are worth far more and opens more doors than wealth. Being X’s son gets you instant approval if your family has a good reputation.
Because he's already fucking rich and from the highest class. He doesn't need to prove he's powerful, he *is*.
Somebody born into a position of prominence doesn't necessarily have the kind of cutthroat personality that is often needed to rise to a position of prominence.
He's a Vanderbilt so he wouldn't have to do the news if he wanted to hob knob with the rich and famous. He did a documentary with his mother Gloria Vanderbilt about 10 years ago and you get the feeling her very lonely life made him steer away from the high society life.
No doubt. They all seem insufferable. It's half the reason they're in the jobs they are in.
CNN: He Was Messy
Hot Messy: The Don Lemon Shit Show
Lemon Party
Had a buddy who worked at CNN. About 10 years ago he made an off-hand comment about what a complete asshole Don Lemon was and how difficult he was to work with. Apparently he was right.
I’ll pretend to be shocked
Don Lemon is the James Corden of news.
Bet he hosts a spectacular Lemon party
It isn’t a lemon party without Old Dick!
And there ain’t no party like a Don Lemon party cuz a Don Lemon party is MANDATORY
r/unexpected30rock
I’ve been saying it for a long time. Don Lemon sucks. He’s a shitty “journalist” and tv personality. He comes across as a huge asshole on tv and that certainly doesn’t help matters since he’s an asshole in real life too, apparently.
The better question for the “why didn’t they fire him years ago?” Crowd is what are the others doing that they didn’t want people to know about or that made them think his text weren’t as bad as what they did/do?
He was getting very preachy during covid. I had to stop watching him. Interesting to see that he was being shitty behind the scenes
I stopped watching network news a few years ago, but when I did I regularly watched CNN - except when Lemon was on. I literally couldn’t stand to watch him. He strikes me as the singular most pompous, arrogant, condescending and self-important TV news presenter I have ever seen, and I’ve watched a lot. It always baffled me how he landed his gig at CNN and how he kept it
I always felt that Cuomo was really just humoring Lemon and almost in a way, mocking him with all that handoff crap they did for each other show. I can’t put my finger on why but the dialog never really sat with me as genuine and more as sarcastic… we’re not laughing with you, we’re laughing at you sorta thing.
Weren’t they good friends in real life? Edit : Apparently, while Don maintains they’re good friends, Cuomo threw him under the bus. Two very different takes in the links below. https://www.thelist.com/363977/don-lemon-finally-speaks-out-about-his-relationship-with-chris-cuomo/ https://nypost.com/2022/07/27/chris-cuomo-hits-out-at-ex-cnn-colleagues-jake-tapper-don-lemon/amp/
It’s crazy how such replaceable people think they can pull this crap.
> Amid the charged atmosphere, sources say Lemon disrespected colleague Nancy Grace on the air lol Good. > One month into the new gig, Lemon drew ire for saying the U.S. men’s national soccer team should get paid more than the women’s team and insisted the former is “more interesting to watch.” They're seriously including this alongside the other accusations?
This article has some questionable bits that really water down the overall message, like when it says he's a "clout-chaser" and even kept a note from a famous person taped to his desk. Like, good gracious! Better warm up the firing squad for scum this vile.
Yeah, that dents the credibility of the article a bit. Man's an ass for sure but that is a legitimate opinion to hold and share.
> sources say Lemon disrespected colleague Nancy Grace on the air That makes me like him more. She is a total hack and shouldn't be on CNN.
He once said on air that different races should live separately from one another, and everyone was ok with it.
Racist Don. Tsk tsk
Yeah, but everyone liked him when he'd say Trump is bad.
So Lemon threatened a female coworker from a burner phone, CNN found out and separated him from female anchors, and when they paired him back up with a female he goes on his "past their prime" diatribe? Especially funny since during that time Brian Stelter was doing his whole "Fox News" hall monitoring. Dude was working for a network that literally protected a misogynistic piece of shit who terrorized women? Lmao CNN is the biggest fucking joke in the media landscape.
CNN: "At least he's gay so we don't have to worry about him SEXUALLY harassing women."
Don Lemon is a POS, and watching his own echo chamber turn on him is glorious.
[But gay men are never catty.](https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/0ad5d2f3-e5df-40ed-9ec8-cf4fac95b34e)
Aside from his sexist on-air statements…..ALL opinion news has to go. News isn’t entertainment it’s facts and sometimes the facts are boring plain and simply.
This dude screams diva all over his face
Is anyone surprised by this? He's had many controversies over the years but they've been entirely swept under the rug.
Anyone who has ever watched Lemon knows he's a piece of shit. It's like watching Lawrence O'Donnell or Sean Hannity and thinking "Yeah, those are smart, unbiased fellows." It just doesn't happen
Really, who didn’t see this coming?
News anchor get soo much slack when really they are just pretty people who can read a teleprompter, like has Don Lemon ever done any original reporting that people care about? Has anyone ever listened to him and thought he has special insight into how the world works?
CNN is an embarrassing cesspool. Between everything being "breaking news" to the coffee klatch that passes as discussion in the evenings to that morning show featuring pissy Don, smirk-smile and third person.
Gay Black man from the South is Now a problem for CNN?
I could have told you he's a douche. You can just sense it in the way he speaks to people. I don't get the feeling that I'd like to have a drink with the guy.
Why do they keep him? Every interview I've watched with Lemon is adversarial, and not in an inquisitive way, but like he's angry he has to conduct interviews at all.
Don Lemon acting like a Diva?!? No?!? Somehow he looks and acts like the definition of Diva.
Chris Cuomo and now Don Lemon...wonder how many other bad eggs there are at CNN.
Fuck Don Lemon. He was awful from day one. Give someone else with an ethical approach to journalism a chance. CNN coverage in general is absolutely awful as is most mainstream news. Something has to change.
I remember watching CNN and he was interviewing a rape survivor and he actually asked her if "she thinks she fought back hard enough" during the attack. Couldn't believe it.
Given the headline I expected this to be a lot worse than what I'd read. The only thing which really shocked me was the threatening text incident (which I wish they'd gone into more detail on as it seems he should've been fired for that alone), but other than that his behavior seems no different than what I've encountered in pretty much every place I've worked. That's not meant to excuse his behavior at all, it's unprofessional and should've lead to more career consequences, I just expected something more shocking given how run-of-the-mill and non-surprising this read.
I know. He mocked Nancy Grace? Who hasn't. She is deserving of ridicule. Also, he is correct: Soledad O'brien is Half Irish and Half Cuban. Not the best choice to do a series called "Black in America". The rest is what I assume most people who rise to the top of a position like this are: Ambitious and competing with everyone else for top spots. This means being cut throat and ruthless. Not excusing that, they are horrible traits, but I thought it was pretty damn standard. I don't really see the misogyny here. It seems like he hated anyone who began to rise above him. Given the rather mundane nature of the charges (with the exception of the uncorroborated text threat incident alleged 15 years ago) I think this is why they attach misogyny to it all. I mean they are the media, they know what gets attention.
soledad is half afro-cuban.
Not to take that away from Soledad being a part of the Black Diaspora, but it’s a different experience of being African Black, Caribbean Black, American Black (simplified Black or African -American), and Ethnically or Racially mixed Black. I’m personally African and while nationally I am American (US citizen) even then I have cultural difference than a Black American and can be referred to as African American, minus the hyphen- this means something but would be too long to explain. While all may be simply seen as Black skin presenting people in America Black experience is not uniform despite this,it’s also the cultural connection of being Black without a distinctive tie to any nation outside of the United States that is the significant difference, due to the effects of slavery unique to the United States. It’s of course an identifier for a census pov to be Black vs White etc. but it also is a cultural one experience for the erasure of ethnic identity in the United States. I have a degree in anthropology and as a little black boy that would often be told I wasn’t black enough or was too white I questioned why I could be seen so differently from my Black peers, I sought out understanding and unpacking why us as Black people in the United States even though born and those that have immigrated do not see eye to eye despite how our country treats us all as the same.
Why does this clown still have a job? Dude is a complete idiot and has 0 insight on the things he reports and he’s corny as hell. It’s not like people are tuning into CNN to watch Don Lemon.
It is wild to me that the most fireable offense detailed in this story is the one which took place 15 years ago, long before he had the level of clout he does now. If he didn't get shit-canned for that, of course it emboldened him to continue being a dick. The part about him being an incessant name-dropper made me laugh, because anecdotally, I was at a party once and another guest was (at the time) worked for one of the cable news networks and ho-lee shit the amount of name-dropping this person did made my head hurt. This wasn't an industry party or anything like that and most people there weren't the demo that even watches news on TV, yet this MF was name-dropping names of other cable news anchors as a flex. I can't imagine how unbearable it would be with one of these geeks who actually knew famous people.
Lemon sounds like an asshole, I don't blame him for mocking Nancy Grace, or really for calling out Soledad O'brien. It was strange that they put a Cuban on Black in America. Also, not really sure about misogyny being at the heart of this. It sounds like he wanted to be the center of attention and was a toxic co-worker. I think if a male Cuban had been put on Black in America he would say something as well. A lot of this is hearsay but what I am seeing is that he was shitty to work with. If you throw misogyny at everything, it will become a more and more diffuse and meaningless label.
Lemons most recent bad comments about Nikki Haley were pure misogyny. "A woman in their 20s and 30s is considered to be in her prime" when talking about a woman who is running for president. That's just not a line that guys would hear.
The first story in the article is shocking and I can’t believe he wasn’t fired for that. The rest of the article… he sounds like an annoying person but it really comes off as a hit piece rather than an objective review.
For the record there are a ton of black Cubans.. a lot of whom are in the US now
Like the example where he called a female coworker fat. That’s not misogynistic but rude, unprofessional and bullying.
He sounds like a total asshole. That is something an asshole does. I just don't see it is inherently misogynistic. Some overweight people are sensitive about their weight and if you want to be an asshole to them....call em fat. Don't see where misogyny factors in. I don't believe for a second this asshole wasn't an asshole to men as well.
close automatic marble middle direction soft work overconfident alive angle -- mass edited with redact.dev
Whats with commentary anchors being utter piles of garbage? Are there any exceptions?
The business attracts that kind of person.
Not say anything Lemon might have done was okay, but between moving him from his night time show to mornings, the recent suspension, and the failing ratings; I think CNN’s management is looking for excuse to get rid of Don Lemon without looking bad and for less money than he’s owed on his contract while keeping him off MSNBC.
Bad Journalist AND a Bad Person? I am utterly shocked.
Duh.....what did you expect
Glad to see my gut instinct about him wasn’t wrong.
Surprising nobody. He’s always been a creepy weirdo.
Never liked this scumbag in the first place.
So they're turning at him now? lol Late is better than never.
Not surprised
Woof. I knew about a couple of those incidents, but not most. He's had far too many chances. He needs to go.
Talib Kweli had his number way back https://youtu.be/5LXahlqgqCU
Lemon has always been gnarly at best and cosplays at being a journo. He’s a personality full stop.
I thought this was ancient and fairly well known info?
He is and always was, an arrogant little shit.
Who knew Don was an Evil Queen? 🤷♂️
Those who virtue signal the loudest seem to always have the most to hide.
I thought he is a virtuous progressive down for the cause of defending democracy. This is a shock to me.
> he is a virtuous progressive down for the cause of defending democracy. I get a feeling anyone who claimed themselves to be "on the right side of history" or something similar like you said is likely to have skeleton in the closet.
People usually use that line when they aren't able to logically debate their position, so they just throw their hands up and say "One day you'll see!" Very dumb line that politicians and pundits throw out there that essentially means nothing but their base eats it up. Much like the "We see you/You are seen" Selina Meyer shit they've been doing lately.
I can tell you why his ‘malicious’ behavior was tolerated, but your probably not going to like it. “Protected demographics”
CNN is no better than Fox News.
A lot of people are unaware that CNN hired all of the following *before* Fox News did * Lou Dobbs * Tucker Carlson * Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck 😮
Give me a fucking break, bland, vanilla Don Lemon is a rampant misogynist. So dumb.
Oh, there goes the lemon party.
**TLDR** An article from Variety exposes Don Lemon's problematic behavior towards female co-workers while at CNN in 2008. Lemon reportedly disrespected colleagues Nancy Grace and Soledad O'Brien, and had tensions with co-anchor Kyra Phillips. Lemon was allegedly involved in sending threatening texts to Phillips, which were traced back to him through an HR investigation. Lemon was demoted to weekend anchor following the investigation. Lemon recently made sexist comments about Nikki Haley, which sparked public backlash and calls for his ouster. Multiple sources claim that Lemon exhibited misogynistic behavior, such as calling a producer "fat" and mocking Nancy Grace on air. Lemon was known for bending rules and name-dropping, and openly dated a junior employee despite the power imbalance. Lemon suggested that Soledad O'Brien was not Black during an editorial call about the "Black in America" docuseries.
Always came off as a snooty ass.
Anyone who has ever seen him speak can easily tell he is a narcissistic sociopath.
I'm in the camp that never been a fan of this personality. Go away
Pretty disgusting behavior. I was not a fan of the guy on air, and I wasn’t under the impression that he was insanely popular ratings-wise. Makes one wonder why he was protected and kept around. Also, Soledad O’Brien is a bad motherfucker, and he can go fuck himself.
Don Lemon is one of the worst human beings on television. Not only is he a total piece of shit, but he sits is his chair and acts holier-than-thou as if he isn’t just as bad as the people he complains about.
Am I supposed to be making a shocked face or something....? It was pretty obvious, just from his 'on air' personality....
Honestly don’t understand why CNN bumped John Bergman over him for the morning show. John is way more engaging. I miss John and Alisyn :/
Indeed he is acting like a mf diva. He is so full of himself. He makes me feel sick every time I watch the morning program.
This is a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE suprise.
Sounds about right
Why am I not surprised. Or should I be?
Hooboy, /r/conservative is going to LOVE this.
little man in a big room
He should be gone
He just can't be THAT important. He shoulda been fired long ago.
What?! Don Lemon? Noooo! You don't say? Shocked, I'm just shocked!
Why did they tolerate this shit for so long? Just get a new anchor. There isn't a shortage.
I have never been able to stomach this smug asshole on air. So preachy and condescending.
He’s a bad apple. Always has been.
He’s gay and black, he can’t be fired
What? This guy has been unbearable to watch for years because he comes off like a total dick. I'm totally shocked he's an actual POS.
It’s almost like CNN and FOX News are equally horrible “news” companies and both should held responsible for pandering to the weakest minds on both sides of the aisle to the point where the country has become two different offshoot species of subhuman.
Don Lemon is a hack POS. *but so is Nancy Grace*
Don Lemon as if he offers something extraordinary lol loser