Once again, any sincere attempt to separate media and politics was made impossible by the current administration. After all, on a day when they knew millions of Epstein Files were being flooded like raw sewage and runoff that included a whole bunch of incideniary stuff and when Brett Ratner’s grifted work release project was being as well received as cholera this was the ideal day to provide a few distractions to get mainstream media to chase a different soup bone. So after a dizzying morning of “breaking news” that valiantly did its best to keep pace with those other red meat news items the fine journalists at TMZ had this recap:
Don Lemon has been released from custody after being criminally charged for covering a church protest in Minneapolis, and he made it clear … this will not silence him. As we reported, Lemon was arrested Thursday night at his home in Los Angeles, for allegedly co-conspiring with protesters to disrupt a church service in Minneapolis. Lemon was released without bail. He says he looks forward to vindicLemon told the crowd … he has been a reporter for 30 years, and he will not stop doing what he has always done — covering the news.ation at trial. Lemon told the crowd … he has been a reporter for 30 years, and he will not stop doing what he has always done — covering the news.
I will not nor should anyone fall on their sword about whether he indeed had the right to cover the event, and Levin joined many experienced reporters in noting that had Lemon failed to take the opportunity to get video on the scene in many media organizations it might have been grounds for dismissal. The trumped-up (word chosen carefully) charges that a clearly desperate Pam Bondi used to get a grand jury to finally do what legitimate judges refused to do are unquestionably ridiculous and through the grace of G-d or at least a C law student chances are strong this will, like so many other of these futile attempts of a thin-skinned man-baby and his minions, eventually wind up going nowhere fast.
My simple question that I would pose to Mr. Lemon is what went through your mind when you made the decision to ingratiate yourself into the story itself by going up to a pulpit during this incident to interrogate the impacted faith leader, and what were the standards of the media organization you now work for that gave you the apparent go-ahead to do so.
Lemon was a reporter for 28 years with actual media organizations, most notably CNN, before a combination of low ratings and poor workplace ethics resulted in his dismissal. No less a journalistic bastion as THE ASSOCIATED PRESS chronicled this in detail nearly three years ago, so don’t just take my word for that. The last two have been spent as the central figure for a startup he unashamedly branded as LMN, the “Lemon Media Network”. I for one might have taken notice that that abbreviation was already being used by Lifetime Movie Network, which just like Lemon has seen far bigger audiences in past years. But if he wants to believe that saying you are a “network” makes you one, I suppose there’s scant little that any contention to the contrary would matter to him.
It’s much more accurate to consider Lemon a content creator, not that in 2026 that’s a knock, especially if one accepts the Gen Z-driven concept that this is the future of all media. Well, there’s a wonderful tool called The Social Blade that provides actual metrics and comparisons for those folks that are in that game. Here’s what it spews out regarding how Lemon is faring as an “independent journalist” on YT and how said performance comparison to some others who have gone that route without having the hubris to call themselves a “network”:
Lemon Megyn Kelly Tucker Carlson Nick Shirley
Launch Date January 11, 2024 November 7, 2019 July 18, 2023 April 27, 2015
Cumulative Views/Rank 319,214,206 (92,855) 2,904,076,465 (7250) 1,130,184,936 (23,423) 296,443,371 (99,953)
Last 3o Days 30 M 104M 46M 28M
Cumulative Subscribers/Rank 1.13 M (1313) 4.13M (1011) 5.15M (909) 1.66M (1011)
The medium may habe changed, but Lemon’s competitive position sure looks consistent. So I suppose what we used to call a “sweeps stunt” might have been in order.
But in following the stylistic lead of the fast-rising Shirley, who has been reviled by his more experienced competitors by utilizing or even going along with ambush techniques that were once the domain of 90s talk shows, he has left himself open to debate as whether he is indeed a fair-minded “journalist” or not. And let’s merely say on that point there is indeed reason for discussion. Jailable, hell no. But debatable, yeah.
It is no secret that Lemon feels about as positively about the current administration as they feel about him, and there’s scant little question that the childish reaction stemming from the White House itself in the wake of yesterday’s actions would drive a lesser man to the level of defiance and determination that Lemon expressed after he walked out of a Los Angeles courthouse yesterday mere steps from where “peaceful protests” against the very actions that drove him to set foot inside that Minneapolis church were unfolding. It was a continuation of the fist-in-the-air defiance that Lemon has continued to express since the incident, most notably on a January 21 “broadcast” where per the TMZ crew he delivered these ominous words:
Shortly after the first attempt to charge him fell through, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again. “And guess what,” he said, “here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”
Incidentally, that particular video drew his biggest measured one-day view count in the last thirty days, an outsized 4.1 million that more than quadrupled the reported 976,000 views that his journalistic swashbuckling delivered in real time. So good work, I suppose. Take that, 47.
But I sort of wish Lemon might have chosen to draw more inspiration from a story I’m certain he knows about assuming he followed Black History Month or at least attended a movie in 2013. PSYCHOLOGY TODAY’s Christopher Bergland shone a light on the mindset it evoked:
Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. “42”: The True Story of an American Legend is the first sports biopic about Jackie Robinson’s life since the 1950s. The film highlights the relationship between Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) and Brooklyn Dodgers’ general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) who signed Robinson to the Dodgers in 1945.
Before signing Jackie Robinson, Rickey made it very clear that: “I’m looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back.” Rickey was looking for an individual who was both a great athlete and a ‘gentleman’ — a person with the inner-strength and self-restraint who could withstand intense hostility and aggression without being reactive. He needed an athlete who wouldn’t perceive ‘not fighting back’ as a sign of weakness or lack of courage.
By choosing not to poke the bears that taunted him with the same level of maturity and personal growth that the current leader of the free world and his social media MAGAots have inflicted on Lemon, Robinson focused on the job he actually was hired to do–play baseball–and did well enough to become a 28-year-old rookie of the year and lead the Dodgers to their first pennant in six years. He helped the overall cause without becoming a distraction in his own right.
Yes, in later years of his life Robinson was much more outspoken and defiant about race and civil rights. But by then he had retired from the game and eventually even left the cushy job of an executive with Chock Full O’Nuts coffee to devote himself to the causes he so passionately believed in. He was in a comfortable enough financial position to do so, even in an era where salaries didn’t exceed five figures. A 17-year run at CNN has undoubtedly left Lemon in an even more enviable position to follow suit. He clearly feels strongly enough about the subject matter to make his views known–something I know he didn’t learn in journalism school. Maybe he–and journalism itself–could be better served if he either took Robinson’s approach and merely reported, or cut bait and gave himself the freedom to do it his way? Judging by his objective comparative metrics, it’s at least a thought that should be crossing his mind.
All I know is that by allowing himself to become a target Lemon has provided his cunning and obsessive foes yet another way to obfuscate, deflect and distract and provide still more reasons to incite still more worthless pep rallies–er, peaceful protests–and grandstanding opportunities for the Karen Basses of this world to express solidarity and indeed give more justification for groups like ICE to continue to exist and achieve what appears to be their ultimate goal–finding a way out of the midterm elections. Right now preserving that opportunity in spite of their ability to at any point declare martial law in response and negate it should be Job One for anyone hoping to see any sort of actual change. The most powerful weapon is not a gun or even a cell phone, it’s a vote. Jackie Robinson figured that out in his day. FFS I would hope the Don Lemons of this world might be so inclined. Just because you have a right doesn’t make it right.
Until next time…