Originally posted by selogic: Susan Rice might be hunting a new job . Black , female , Democrat . CNN will probably look hard at her .
She's made so much money from foreign governments, she's set for life. I think at this point she just wants to fly under the raider before things collapse.
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
-D.H. Lawrence
Posts: 11524 | Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: February 07, 2007
"When you are demoted, reprimanded and sent to manner class - and still don't learn your lesson, the logical next step is termination," one CNN insider told Fox News Digital.
While things hadn't looked bright ratings-wise for Lemon over the past several years, the beginning of the end was in February when he made misogynistic comments about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, saying she was past her "prime" at 51 years old. Lemon was forced to issue multiple apologies and CNN boss Chris Licht, in a rare public rebuke of an employee, ordered him to take "formal training."
Last week on "CNN This Morning," Lemon had a fiery argument with another 2024 hopeful, Vivek Ramaswamy, who clashed with him over comments Ramswamy made about the freedoms of Black Americans in the post-Civil War era. Lemon said his comments were insulting, sparring with Ramaswamy for several minutes as his visibly uncomfortable co-host Poppy Harlow could be seen shifting in her chair and even reading on her phone. At another point in the discussion, Lemon snapped at a producer to stop talking in his ear.
The New York Times suggested Monday that Lemon's latest on-air antics were linked to his firing, saying it had exasperated members of CNN leadership.
"That is the latest example of what he has been warned about," the insider said, who thought the incident would have been swept under the rug.
The insider said despite whether Lemon had the facts on his side in his debate with Ramaswamy, Lemon's "browbeating" over an ideological difference may have cost him his job.
However, a second CNN insider suggested the Ramaswamy clash didn't directly lead to Lemon's firing as the Times seemed to indicate, agreeing with the notion that it was "a death by a thousand cuts."
"Considering all the factors, the situation seemed untenable," the source told Fox News Digital.
Lemon was the subject of relentless bad press in recent months, the worst of which was his Haley remarks and badly received efforts to atone for them.
His move to mornings from primetime last fall was met with disastrous ratings. Then came tabloid reports on off-camera spats with his co-hosts Kaitlan Collins and Harlow, including one incident where he "snapped" at Collins for having interrupted him on air, leaving her visibly upset. Finally, a bombshell exposé from Variety documented years-old accusations of Lemon's misogyny towards female CNN colleagues.
Last week, the New York Post reported that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre requested that she not be interviewed by Lemon during her "CNN This Morning" appearance, which was conducted by Harlow instead.
"Don Lemon had become an embarrassing distraction after losing his primetime show," a former CNN producer told Fox News Digital. "His morning show was a disaster and he’d lost the newsroom with his antics."
Lemon represents the 21 century molly-coddled bitch that thinks their leftwing views give them a free hand "on the air." Hope is written off by all media outlets.
I read somewhere, perhaps here, that after not getting a particular assignment he went to the other reporters desk and ripped up the photos and papers on and in her desk. Then she received an anonymous threat that was traced back to him. He is deranged.
As bad as his on air behavior is, his off screen is worse.
Posts: 7540 | Location: Florida | Registered: June 18, 2005
Originally posted by ensigmatic: One wonders if the perpetually-offended left will accuse CNN of "racism" and "homophobia?"
Lemon's firing does present them with a conundrum, doesn't it? CNN being one of the primary mouthpieces of the left and all. "Should we turn on CNN or should we throw Lemon under the bus?" Decisions, decisions.
Posts: 7478 | Location: Idaho | Registered: February 12, 2007
Para called it, the last straw was his absolutely awful treatment of Vivek Ramaswamy:
quote:
This Don Lemon Interview With GOP Candidate Was The Last Straw: NYT
Zero Hedge TUESDAY, APR 25, 2023 - 06:55 AM
The insufferable Don Lemon's long-overdue ousting from CNN ultimately sprang from his discourse-stifling, race-baiting interview of GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, sources tell The New York Times.
Last Wednesday, Ramaswamy appeared on "CNN This Morning," the show Lemon co-hosted with Kaitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow after his September demotion from prime time.
When Ramaswamy said Lemon was doing a "disserrvice to our country by failing to recognize" the enormous progress blacks have made in securing rights since 1865 and 1964, things went downhill quickly, with Lemon sanctimoniously telling Vivek that he wasn't authorized to talk about black history.
You see, while Ramaswamy is a man of color, it isn't the right one. "When you are in black skin and then you live in this country...then you can disagree with me," said Lemon.
Harlow sat silently, alternately watching the spectacle, looking at her phone and elsewhere. Meanwhile, it appeared CNN producers were trying to pull Lemon back from the cliff -- only to receive an on-air scolding. "Please. I cannot keep a thought if you guys are talking in my ear. So hang on one second," he said, ordering the producers to stop talking as he similarly worked to bring Ramaswamy to heel.
If he hadn't already done so, it's safe to say Lemon sealed his fate with one particular line down the stretch -- as he told Ramaswamy it was "insulting" for him to be "sitting there, whatever ethnicity you are, 'splaining to me what it's like to be black in America."
Citing anonymous sources, the Times reported that the segment "left several CNN leaders exasperated."
Lemon had already been on thin ice, having been demoted from prime time to a morning slot six months ago. Even though he was in network rehabilitation mode, he continued piling on reasons for his CNN masters to eject him altogether.
In December, the crew of "CNN This Morning" reportedly witnessed an unsettling backstage argument between Lemon and Kaitlin Collins, one of his co-hosts. Lemon had apparently scolded her for repeatedly interrupting him.
In February, Lemon said GOP candidate Nikki Haley -- at age 51 -- "isn't in her prime, sorry...A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.” When his female co-hosts pushed back, he shut them down by declaring "I’m just saying what the facts are — Google it.” He apologized and submitted to a CNN training program.
That reportedly prompted his female co-hosts to storm off for a "well-timed bathroom break." Sensitive, PC types would have raised a ruckus if a host on any network said what Lemon had said about women -- the fact that it happened on CNN made it all the more noteworthy. The same can be said for his "whatever ethnicity you are" line with Ramaswamy.
It's interesting that, between Haley and Ramaswamy, two GOP candidates played central roles in sweeping Lemon off the screen.
CNN bookers had recently observed that fewer guests wanted to be interviewed by Lemon, just as internal research documented a drop in his popularity.
Barring a personality change, moving Lemon to a morning show was a terrible attempt at salvaging a lost cause. As the Times put it:
"Mr. Lemon imported [his spiky-exchange and pull-no-punches] persona to “CNN This Morning,” but it was an awkward fit for an hour when many viewers — making breakfast and getting children off to school — want easygoing patter, not thundering monologues."
The divorce was already off to a messy start, as Lemon and CNN tweeted contradictory characterizations of how his termination was handled.
Expect more fur to fly: Lemon has retained Hollywood lawyer Bryan Freedman to advise him on his exit from CNN, where his current contract was to continue until 2026. Big-media litigation makes for strange bedfellows: Tucker Carlson has hired Freedman too.
[T]hings hadn't looked bright ratings-wise for Lemon for several years...Finally, a bombshell exposé from Variety documented years-old accusations of Lemon's misogyny towards female CNN colleagues.
I'm willing to believe there was a straw that broke the camel's back, but the simplest explanations tend to be correct.
BTW, I think I should have expected that both Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon would have hired the same lawyer to sue their respective former employers, but it's still funny.
Posts: 27308 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008
OK, you actually expect that Don Lemon might show up on FoxNews? Really? You're telling me you actually believe this is something that could happen? After years of Fox sniping at the guy?
This is downright silly and I cannot believe you even touched it.
Originally posted by parabellum: OK, you actually expect that Don Lemon might show up on FoxNews? Really? You're telling me you actually believe this is something that could happen? After years of Fox sniping at the guy?
This is downright silly and I cannot believe you even touched it.
Yes, it's damn silly and I am not listening to this stuff. Leave it alone. If you think there's even the slightest possibility that Don Lemon will end up on FoxNews, your instincts about such things must be awfully poor.
