Don Lemon is having a meltdown over a Variety story that paints him in a very negative way. And according to Insider, Lemon is “apoplectic” and has consulted attorneys about a lawsuit against Variety.
Sources told Insider: “It’s another shit show. Everyone knows the a.m. show is a problem. His behavior has hurt the show since it launched. The stench won’t go away. Variety is the latest example of that. I assume he’d be out.”
“Chris Licht is standing behind him. The alternative is paying him out and paying somebody else. It’s not worth it. Unless this turns into something and the press stays on it.”
A CNN spokesperson told Insider, “The Variety story provides no actual proof, and instead relies on anonymous sources and unsubstantiated claims from 10 to 15 years ago. CNN is unable to corroborate the alleged accounts.”
Lemon issued a statement saying: “The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely brd on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip. It’s amazing and disappointing that Variety would be so reckless.”
Variety published a long article detailing Lemon’s many issues.
One source told Variety: “She thinks he’s an ass, he was always rude, dismissive and really unfamiliar with the content being discussed.”
Another said: “That was the beginning of when you knew that Don was kind of volatile and didn’t say good things about women.”
Another said: “I saw a new Don emerging, and I didn’t like the new Don. He likes celebrity.
“He likes fame, likes power. He was no longer the same person.”
Lemon also annoyed coworkers by acting like a diva, name-dropping, and not following the rules.
“That led to a come-to-Jesus moment,” a former executive said. “Don was told, ‘Look, you’ve got to address your behavior. Your performance as a reporter is great. It’s your behavior that’s gotta improve. It’s what’s going to derail you if you’re not careful.’”
Variety reported: One night while dining with members of the news team, 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, according to those same sources.”
“More troubling was his misogynistic behavior, multiple sources say. Lemon called one of his producers fat to her face. Not long before he was identified as sending threatening texts to Phillips, he mocked Grace on air by mimicking her, shocking fellow colleagues.
A CNN spokesperson said about one accusation leveled in the article, “Don, Soledad and others have in the past correctly referred to her Afro-Cuban heritage as it is a unique part of her personal story. But Don denies making any related remark in a derogatory way.”
Goldie Taylor, a former CNN consultant who said she was blacklisted for calling out Lemon, said:
“I’m never surprised when Don gets in trouble.
“It makes me neither happy nor sad to see him undermine his own success.
“There was a time when it appeared that Black people were most often the subject of his ire.
“Now, it seems to me that when he says something offensive, there’s almost always a woman on the other side.”
If Don Lemon was a White Straight guy vs. a Black Gay one, he would be unemployed tonight. That’s the truth about the media today and especially @CNN. pic.twitter.com/OBUJ6XCPfr
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) April 6, 2023
