Insiders at CNN Don’t Understand Why Don Lemon Still Has a Job There
“He rates poorly, he is a source of constant embarrassment and his new morning show is an unqualified disaster”
CNN’s Don Lemon is having a tough year. In September, he was taken out of primetime and moved to a morning show. Then he made a dumb comment about Nikki Haley, for which he was forced to apologize.
Lemon’s conflicts with his female co-hosts have been widely reported as well. All of this is causing some people to wonder why CNN is still standing by him.
FOX News reports:
CNN insiders baffled why network stands by Don Lemon as controversies mount: ‘One of the biggest mysteries’
Ratings-challenged host Don Lemon has emerged as Teflon at CNN, with the network standing by his every move despite the constant negative attention he creates.
CNN’s latest defense of the embattled anchor came last week when Variety published a bombshell report revealing scandalous allegations about him such as sending threatening text messages to a colleague from a burner phone and repeatedly exhibiting misogynistic and “diva-like” behavior. A spokesperson on behalf of Lemon ripped the claims in a strongly worded statement distributed by CNN that blasted the report as “riddled with patently false anecdotes” and “based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip.”
CNN itself put an emphasis on Lemon denying the claims, and he has appeared on “CNN This Morning” per usual. A longtime media industry executive who previously worked at CNN is baffled that the network continues to stand by him.
“Well before the Variety article appeared, it’s been one of the biggest mysteries in TV news why CNN keeps Don Lemon around. He rates poorly, he is a source of constant embarrassment and his new morning show is an unqualified disaster,” the media insider told Fox News Digital.
“Now his long history of degrading women has been laid bare,” they continued. “What mysterious hold does he have over his bosses that explains his longevity?”
Even the new boss over at CNN knows Lemon is a handful.
The New York Post reports:
CNN boss Chris Licht admits Don Lemon is a ‘lightning rod’ after sexist rant, misogyny history
Don Lemon’s boss at CNN admitted on Monday that the former primetime star has been a “lightning rod” for controversy — days after a damning report alleged years of “diva-like” and misogynistic behavior by the embattled “CNN This Morning” co-host.
CNN CEO Chris Licht was asked about Lemon — who recently drew scorn for saying that 51-year-old GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley was “not in her prime” — during an appearance at a media conference hosted by the news startup Semafor.
“Don Lemon is a lightning rod because he really came to prominence during an era where that was celebrated and encouraged in prime time,” Licht told Semafor’s Ben Smith when asked to comment on how he deals with the press coverage surrounding Lemon.
“CNN has moved on from that and Don has moved on from that,” Licht said.
It’s amazing that the guy is still employed at CNN.
Other people have lost jobs for so much less.
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Comments
Perhaps blackmail?
Perhaps he has pictures.
Perhaps he has a poison-pill contract.
Of what ? Holding a lantern outside to Ted Turner’s house.
What are you, racist? It would be Whitemail! 😀
He sure is
Perhaps black
mail.FIFY
CNN is not interested in getting sued for tossing out an affirmative action/gay LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ employee.
It doesn’t look too good for their Social Rating Score.
Black, gay, and litigious. Mystery solved.
Problem solved. Exactly right. CNN is waiting until the contract runs out as they still have enough revenue coming in from the forced cable bundles to pay him then, poof!
What about the poof?
How cynical, and how correct!
I’ve got it.
Ratings are so low that he brings a bump for shock value. People watch him just to see if he will do something to get fired and what it might take to have that happen.
He fits in very with with the other girls on the show. Their issues are mere cattiness between women.
I do.
I don’t understand why insiders at CNN still have jobs there.
In the words of the immortal Detective Columbo:
“It’s a mystery to me, sir.”
He is still employed for many of the same reasons he was hired; he is a homosexual African-American and now after his long tenure at CNN is much more prominent and thus much more difficult to fire than to hire.
CNN is desperate.
It sounds to me like the “insiders” at CNN don’t really understand CNN or its journalistic mission. Getting rid of Don Lemon is to ditch the CNN brand, itself.
Damn the ratings. He should be given his own prime time slot called: “Mr. CNN” We’ll all be made aware, nightly, of who is past their prime, from Mr. Lemon himself, in real-time, with NO apologies.
Let’s roll, CNN!
CNN is a woke company. Does anyone think they will fire a gay black man? No I didn’t think so. Want to see CNN, MSNBC, CNBC et all go away. Inundate your congress critter and senators to force cable and satellite providers to unbundle. Make it all ala carte. Only way.
Probably not. Transgender is trendy.
Ha, Don is a lemon.
He will grow a beard, change his surname to Citroën, and find another job on Quebec tv.
Is it really that mysterious, or are you just too much of a coward to say?
I’ll say it.
Photos of many of them bent over a desk with Don Lay Mon riding bareback.
Cares given: O
Inertia
Its easier to let him keep going than it is to find a replacement and create a new show.
Insiders KNOW very well why he still has a job.
He’s black and he’s gay, and given the racial makeup of Fulton County, would win millions in a discrimination lawsuit.
I don’t know how Clown Nose News keeps the lights on. I don’t think their dozens of viewers are actually keeping their network afloat.
I have a friend who owns and operates a restaurant. One of the bartenders whom he hired is a black lesbian. He has joked with me that he can never fire her because she has three layers of protection. I imagine CNN is in a similar position with Lemon.
Because he has naked pictures with a goat, of people who would be embarrassed if he disclosed naked pictures of them with a goat.
No, that’s not it. I got nothin.
It certainly is a mystery why CNN will not fire a black, gay guy……wait…