NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Don Lemon's tussle with CNN boss Chris Licht began on the very first day of his tenure as host of 'CNN This Morning' and the reason for that was Lemon's ensembles which Licht considered to be peculiar. According to a reports of The Atlantic, Lemon, who was eventually fired from the television network after 17 years, waltzed onto the set on the morning of the show's November 1 debut while sporting a white jacket with a fur collar.
“What the f–k is he wearing?”, the 51-year-old executive exclaimed when he saw Lemon's odd and casual look, as per the explosive report which was published on Friday, June 2. Lemon took the jacket off before going on air alongside co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins but then reportedly messed up the opening line of the segment.
'Read the f-cking prompter'
According to the report, Licht exclaimed in frustration, "Read the f-cking prompter." Licht reportedly criticized Lemon for instilling too much commentary into each segment since the show's debut, including one time when he described Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate as not "in her prime."
Top executives urged Licht to fire Lemon
Fearing that there was no way to save Lemon's position at 'CNN This Morning', the top executives apparently urged Licht to fire him from his duty. Lemon, for his part, “pitched an attempt at damage control — a prime-time special on misogyny, which he would host with a roundtable of women", the report stated. However, the idea was rejected by Licht.
According to the report, Lemon began telling allies in the wake of outrage over the misogynistic comment that Al Sharpton, Ben Crump, and other Black leaders would “come to his aid if he were axed from the network, and would defend his firing as a move to bolster CNN’s whiteness". Lemon's spokesperson though debunked these claims and instead stated that Licht’s team spread rumors about the former CNN host to distract from his own shortcomings as the boss of the network.
The Atlantic reported that Licht lured Lemon from his primetime sort to 6 am with a whopping $7 million-a-year deal and placed him along with co-anchors Harlow and Collins. Licht thought contrasting personalities of a gay, a colored southerner and two prominent female reporters from Minnesota and Alabama would be the “fun” viewers desperately wanted. Although the show brought in some of CNN’s lowest ratings it had ever seen, Licht initially thought it would be a “game-changing” morning segment for cable news.
Lemon's bizarre outfits, off-hand commentary and controversial opinions made him the agitator among the three anchors. It ultimately resulted in a heated altercation between him and Licht surrounding its town hall event with Donald Trump. The Atlantic report claims that Licht had several grounds to fire Lemon from CNN but he chose not to do so as Lemon served as the network's sole Black voice.
'A deep issue for a deep man'
Twitter users also reacted to the news. One user tweeted, "Definitely a step in the right direction was getting rid of the cocky Lemon." Another wrote, "A deep issue for a deep man." One user opined, "If the overall goal of @CNN is to become more trusted as a news organization, it had no choice but to move on from @donlemon. His comments regarding multiple #GOP presidential candidates were beyond unacceptable", while another simply typed, "Lol".
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