Don Lemon

Friday

Cockburn

Don Lemon’s arrest will rally the #Resistance

Lemon squeezy Don Lemon, the former CNN anchor turned Substack influencer, was taken into custody by Homeland Security and FBI agents in Los Angeles last night. Lemon had previously covered an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month – though a federal judge in the state refused to approve charges against him. Another independent video journalist present at the church service, Georgia Fort, has also been arrested by federal agents, who said they were acting upon a grand-jury decision. Lemon faces two charges: conspiracy to deprive rights and FACE Act violation. For context: a number of independent and video journalists were charged following the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

don lemon

Wednesday

Ben Domenech

Theater kids are holding Texas hostage

The theater kids are at it again. The Texas Democratic party is engaged in yet another performative act of resistance – one perhaps less embarrassing than the likes of Representative Greg Casar's iconic nine-hour "thirst strike," but far more damaging to Texans in the moment. The decision by more than 50 Texas representatives to flee the state for the climes of California, New York and Illinois rather than confront the realities of their political margins doesn't just act as a grandstanding method of opposition to a redistricting policy that would stand to Republicans' benefit – it also is holding up the legislative response to the recent flooding disaster, something of significant need to the damaged communities.

texas theater

Wednesday

Stephen L. Miller

Welcome to the era of personality media

Several high-priced journalists have begun experimenting with selling themselves instead of a corporate media brand. Chris Cillizza and Mark Halperin have both started Substack ventures without having the branding back-up of CNN or Bloomberg. The pair follow in the footsteps of Megyn Kelly, who has been enormously successful in launching her own brand. Don Lemon has been confined to social media as well.Last year, Washington Post tech reporter Taylor Lorenz left corporate media behind to create her own outlet, although I would argue her audience and branding were separate from that of the Post.

Friday

Grace Curley

Will the media carry its snobbery problem into the next Trump era?

At the 92nd Street Y last month, an audience paid actual money to watch the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin record her podcast with Lincoln Project founding member George Conway. Admission was $20 — but can you really put a price on watching two deranged NeverTrumpers cope with the reality of a looming second Trump presidency?  In a set reminiscent of Inside the Actors Studio, Rubin began waxing poetic about why the media is so “mamsy-pamsey.”  This is the same woman who went from calling Barack Obama a “boring gasbag” to claiming his “mere presence reminded us of what a dignified, responsible president sounds like.” She has also performed a well-documented back flip on John Bolton that would make your head spin.

jennifer rubin snobbery

Thursday

Aidan McLaughlin

How podcasts swayed the 2024 election

Around 2:45 on the morning of November 6, Donald Trump beckoned Dana White to the lectern to address the sea of MAGA-hatted supporters assembled to celebrate the former president’s election victory. In his brief but animated remarks at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship made sure to thank a cadre of figures who might just have been the key to Trump’s shocking triumph. “I want to thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, Bussin’ With the Boys,” White said, “and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan!” You would be forgiven for not knowing who all these people are. No doubt many of the faithful assembled to cheer Trump were perplexed as well.

podcasts

Thursday

Cockburn

Elon Musk cans Don Lemon

Just when Cockburn feared Don Lemon might be able to salvage the remnants of his career, the former CNN host's shot of success slipped away. Lemon, who had cut a deal with X to host The Don Lemon Show, announced on Wednesday that Elon Musk had ended their partnership. The news came just hours after the two had sat down for an interview for the upcoming show.  “Elon Musk is mad at me,” Lemon said in a video while sipping his Starbucks latte. “Apparently, free speech absolutism doesn't apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me.” On Wednesday night, Lemon came crawling back to CNN to spill tea with Erin Burnett and share some tense moments from the interview. https://twitter.

don lemon

Wednesday

The Spectator

Lloyd Austin’s hospital scandal keeps getting worse

White House officials confirmed Tuesday that defense secretary Lloyd Austin kept his prostate cancer diagnosis to himself for a month before informing the White House, adding further scrutiny to Austin’s recent failure to inform Biden or the National Security Council that he was in the ICU for several days. Austin, who oversees a department tasked with deterring conflict, received his diagnosis in December, according to a statement from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center officials.

Wednesday

Stephen L. Miller

Chris gets Licht: Jeff Zucker’s inmates still run the CNN asylum

It appears that Chris Licht is a victim of the Deep State of the Union at CNN. Licht is out at CNN, lasting just over a year, during which time he was unable to drain the swamp Jeff Zucker had left for him. Licht faced down several internal mutinies, reportedly some being led by former Media Matters imi-tater Brian Stelter, whom Licht released last August.After a much-hyped profile by Tim Alberta in the Atlantic, several other hit pieces followed at progressive outlets. They all smelled blood in the water and were proven right. Licht’s stated focus was to rein in CNN’s WrestleMania-style coverage of the Trump years.

chris licht

Wednesday

Stephen L. Miller

Elon Musk’s new CEO will move Twitter toward streaming

Elon Musk’s hire of Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, says a lot about where Musk plans to take the news-dependent, micro-blogging website that has become the center of the media universe. Notable conservative Twitter accounts raised alarms that Yaccarino is a social justice warrior who pushed DEI and mask and vaccine mandates and wants to return Twitter to a "woke" paradise that sees accounts banned for thought crimes. Meanwhile, progressive media accounts highlighted her Catholic background and Republican connections. Right-wing accounts declared it the death of Twitter, even as it was revealed that Tucker Carlson will be bringing streaming programming similar to his former show on Fox News to the platform.

linda yaccarino

Tuesday

Aidan McLaughlin

Chris Licht’s troubled first year at CNN

One year into his tenure as the CEO of CNN, Chris Licht is taking a battering. Ratings are dwindling, viewers are outraged and an internal rift is widening. The mountain of problems facing the embattled CEO erupted into public view last week in the wake of the network’s town hall with Donald Trump, an event that sparked outrage inside and outside the CNN newsroom. “It feels very bleak,” one CNN journalist told me. “Staffers are nervous about the future.

chris licht cnn

Friday

Cockburn

Fox you, Media Matters!

You’d think Fox Corporation would be sick of lawsuits by now — but there’s life in the old dog yet. The company has sent a letter to Media Matters for America, after the left-wing watchdog spent the week drip-feeding what they’ve brazenly titled “FOXLEAKS.” So far the “scoops” consist of... Tucker Carlson cracking a few jokes between segments.Fox lawyers write that the footage was “unlawfully obtained.” This has ruined Cockburn’s chances of winning $5, because he was sure Fox were the leakers. Cockburn’s second guess was Abby Grossberg, the former Tucker booker suing her old bosses for maintaining a toxic work environment — but a source familiar with the show says they don’t think it’s Abby.

media matters

Friday

John Pietro and Matt Purple

Could abortion be a vote-winner for Democrats nationally?

Could abortion be a vote-winner for Democrats nationally? Former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is concerned for the future of the GOP. Walker is an authority here: he’s one of the few elected officials to have ever won three elections in four years, after Democrats mounted a boneheaded attempt to recall him from office back in 2012. What worries Walker now, per comments he made to Fox News Thursday, is the result of this week’s election for his own state’s Supreme Court that saw liberals secure a judicial majority for the first time since 2008. That election centered largely on abortion — the soon-to-be justice who won, Janet Protasiewicz, made very clear that she was pro-choice.

janet protasiewicz
don lemon
Cockburn

Will Don Lemon be squeezed out at CNN?

Dylly dilly! Conservatives have been dumping out their Bud Lights lately — or in Kid Rock's case, shooting them —over the beer giant's decision to enter into a brand partnership with trans TikTokker Dylan Mulvaney. Higher-ups at Anheuser-Busch are thought to have been caught flat-footed by the scandal and resulting boycott and are fearful of potential financial ramifications. Could Mulvaney's other corporate partners be next? They include Nike, MAC Cosmetics, Ulta Beauty, the Qatari-owned Plaza Hotel and, most bizarrely considering Dylan's lack of a womb, Tampax... The Little Mermaid (she/her) Disney’s new live-action remake of The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey is going even more PC.

Tuesday

Charles Lipson

Victimhood and mudslinging now define American politics

The 2024 campaign has hardly started, but the air is already filled with noxious fumes, most of it from desperate cable TV hosts and anonymous social-media posters. Don Lemon’s sexist comments about Nikki Haley are the latest example, but the vitriol has spread much wider. It reveals a dank corner of American politics, filled with mud-slinging and name-calling, degrading our public square. Donald Trump specializes in these attacks.. He has already launched several, unsuccessfully, on the man he sees as his most formidable competitor. Calling Florida’s popular governor “Meatball Ron” and “DeSanctimonious” isn’t an argument. It’s an epithet. It has the intellectual heft of giving someone the middle finger.

mudslinging nikki haley victimhood

Friday

Cockburn

Afghanistan lacks #BlackGirlMagic, laments top US diplomat

White House correspondents behaving badly Getting President Biden to answer to the press is hard enough. His handlers in the administration make it even tougher. And now it seems journalists are linking arms with them to help the aging president out. Tamara Keith, current head of the White House Correspondents’ Association and its apparent hall monitor, chastised her colleagues in an email a tipster passed to Cockburn about “decorum.” (Cockburn, you will be shocked to hear, is not a WHCA member and so is at liberty) Keith took umbrage when “at least three journalists continued loudly shouting” over a reporter, “making it impossible for the president to hear and answer the question. It didn’t reflect well on our profession.

afghanistan blackgirlmagic

Friday

Cockburn

Why Tiffany Cross got the ax

Weekend host Tiffany Cross has been cut from MSNBC. According to Variety, "MSNBC decided not to renew Cross’s contract after two years... and severed ties with her immediately." The trade paper is rather euphemistic in its description of why Cross was shown the door: Executives at the network [were] growing concerned about the anchor’s willingness to address statements made by cable-news hosts on other networks and indulging in commentary executives felt did not meet the standards of MSNBC or NBC News. Allow Cockburn to translate: Cross was becoming burdensome to the network for her regular rash remarks.

tiffany cross

Sunday

Grace Curley

Welcome to MSNBC U

By the way the left drones on about disinformation, you would think that Trump-supporting boomer rubes were the only ones falling victim to inaccurate news stories. Alas, it would appear that even the beautiful people inside the Beltway are not immune to bad intel. In the first week of January, during the oral arguments over the Biden vaccine mandate, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spread disinformation from the highest court in the land. “We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators,” the justice said. The number of children hospitalized with Covid-19 at the time was 4,464. This level of inaccuracy from a Supreme Court justice immediately garnered attention. Social-media users and Twitter blue-checks were perplexed.

MSNBC u

Wednesday

Cockburn

CNN in crisis

Cockburn is finally allowed to travel internationally again and he is quite chapped that his airport bar bourbons will no longer be paired with a side of CNN. It was, in fact, the only time he would indulge in the network’s antics. But based on the recent headlines about the poorly rated cable news channel, the loss of its airport network should be the least of CNN’s worries. Primetime anchor Chris Cuomo, who was ousted from his show last week over revelations that he was deeply involved in his brother’s public response to sexual harassment allegations, is reportedly planning to sue the network for the rest of the money from his contract. This is bad news for CNN, which is now quietly investigating a sexual misconduct accusation against Chris.

cnn

Tuesday

Roger Kimball

The staggering stupidity of Don Lemón

What the stupidest thing you will hear today? Here’s one way to improve your odds at an accurate answer: who is the stupidest television commentator currently polluting the airwaves? If you said 'Don Lemón™’, you are hot on the trail. When I first encountered the CNN talking head, I thought he was just the latest embarrassing affirmative action hire. How could anyone take this unpleasant, unremittingly partisan hack seriously? But it soon became clear that Lemón (accent on the 'o’) was something special. It was partly the brittle touchiness, partly the steady emission of self-satisfied entitlement. Mostly, though, it was the stupidity, unwritten by ignorance and fired by adamantine self-certainty. The latest instance is one of the best.

don lemon

Tuesday

Cockburn

Tough news for Terry Crews

Actor and comedian Terry Crews is taking heat for criticizing the Black Lives Matter organization over its tendency to hone in on police brutality and ignore far larger issues in the black community. He recently tweeted that he wants to make sure 'black lives matter' doesn't turn into 'black lives matter more'. Predictably, he was met by reactionary shrieks of ‘Uncle Tom’ and ‘coon’.Crews appeared on CNN on Monday night to explain his objections to BLM, and instead received a lecture from Don Lemon about the grievous errors in his line of thinking.

Terry Crews appears on CNN's Tonight with Don Lemon