During a radio commentary for the Black America Web site on Thursday, CNN Tonight host Don Lemon startled many of his listeners when he declared that the culture of “political correctness” in America has become “dangerous.”
He also claimed that after 25 years in the news business, he believes “liberals are the least tolerant people.”
During Tuesday's edition of The Nightly Show on the Comedy Central cable channel, host Larry Wilmore used a combination of bad comedy and vulgarity to criticize how the Cable News Network and the Fox News Channel covered the riots and chaos in Baltimore the night before.
With the phrase “What a Riot” over a picture of a burning car, the black liberal began the segment by stating: “We're talking about the devastating events in Baltimore” before playing a clip of a CNN reporter noting that Maryland governor Larry Hogan had declared a state of emergency, and school was canceled after the riots on Monday night.
PBS's Tavis Smiley shamelessly invoked Dr. Martin Luther King on Thursday's CNN Tonight, as he commented on the ongoing controversy surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown: "It underscores that Martin [Luther] King was right about what he called the 'triple threat' almost 50 years ago....He said what's threatening our very democracy is what he called the triple threat of racism, poverty, and militarism. What we saw in Ferguson was racism, poverty and militarism."
Don Lemon returned to the question of whether Islam is an inherently violent religion on Monday's CNN Tonight, as he interviewed Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison and author Reza Aslan. Lemon turned to his two Muslim guests for their take on a recent Tweet by atheist HBO host Bill Maher: "ISIS, one of thousands of Islamic militant groups beheads another. But by all means let's keep pretending all religions are alike."
Don Lemon surprisingly shot down a common moral equivalency argument in defense of the Islamic faith during a panel discussion on Wednesday's CNN Tonight. Lemon asked, "Is Islam a more violent religion than other faiths?" When CNN analyst Tom Fuentes answered, "Yes, it must be," guest Arsalan Iftikhar retorted by playing up that "Christian extremist organizations...have bombed gay nightclubs and...abortion clinics in the name of Christendom."
The CNN anchor interrupted Iftikhar as he made that talking point, and zeroed in on the vastly different death tolls between abortion clinic bombings and Islamist terrorist attacks: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
On Tuesday's CNN Tonight, Don Lemon spotlighted the scoop that President Obama received briefings on ISIS "for at least a year" before the extreme Islamist group's blitzkrieg across northern Iraq – something the Big Three networks failed to do the same evening. During a segment with Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, Lemon pointed out that the President was "briefed on this a year ago, and then...looked the other way – didn't take it seriously enough."
Kristof did his best to brush this reporting aside: "I don't think it's quite right to say he didn't take it seriously enough. I think that the problem there is that there aren't good options." The CNN anchor also wondered if the liberal politician should take a stronger stance against ISIS, as one of his main counterparts did: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
Don Lemon at CNN isn't interested in being told what an "automatic" rifle is. He's decided what it is, and the truth doesn't matter. Even after recognizing after the fact that the person correcting him was right, he has no remorse for his demonstrated ignorance.
On Wednesday, as Charles C. W. Cooke noted at National Review's The Corner blog the next day, Lemon claimed that “most people can go out and buy an automatic weapon,” because he was able to do so "within 20 minutes" in Colorado two years ago. Radio host, CNN political commentator, and author Ben Ferguson corrected him. It didn't matter, because as Lemon lamely explained, "For me, an automatic weapon is anything that ... can shoot off a number of rounds very quickly." Video is after the jump, followed by Lemon's vain attempt to recover the next day.
On the August 11 edition of CNN Newsroom, Brooke Baldwin invited fellow CNN host Don Lemon and former NYPD detective Gil Alba on the show to discuss the latest reports of unrest in Ferguson, Mo., following the shooting of an unarmed African-American teen. While the policeman bluntly stated that “there should never be rioting,” Lemon seemed to excuse the behavior, arguing that “when people are put in dire situations, you don't know how they are going to react.”
Alba argued that “when you have the riots, it kind of ruins anybody's having -- you know, trying to help out with this.” The looting allows for a few opportunistic people to use discourse for their own personal gain, and to destroy “their own community” instead of confronting the real “relationship between the police and the community.” The CNN Newsroom anchor remained unmoved and adhered to his position. [See vidoe below. Click here for MP3 audio]
It wasn't supposed to go this way. Or so CNN's Don Lemon must have thought when he had Mexican-American comedian Paul Rodriguez on his CNN Tonight show on Wednesday.
Perhaps Lemon was expecting the standard liberal answers from Rodriguez about what to do with the illegal children flooding across the border from Central American countries. Instead, Rodriguez shocked him as in can see in this video (and after the jump) with an answer that took him completely by surprise.
Kellaynne Conway and Joy Behar faced off on Wednesday's CNN Tonight over the future of ABC's The View, particularly in light of Rosie O'Donnell rejoining the cast. Host Don Lemon wondered, "Will the panel reflect American politics?" When Conway asserted that the program didn't need to be political, Behar sarcastically asked if the conservative pollster wanted the job. Conway replied, "No, no, no. I think they're not really looking for a real conservative."
The former View host later underlined that "a lot of the research showed that women did get their news from us." Conway then expressed her concern about this, which led to Lemon and Behar both making the same point about the long-running ABC program: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
On Friday’s edition of CNN Newsroom with Don Lemon, host Don Lemon and CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash made some unusual remarks about a Republican, but later retreated to downplaying one of the many scandals facing the Obama administration this midterm election year.
Discussing a hearing being held by the House Ways and Means Committee that featured testimony from IRS commissioner John Koskinen regarding the destroyed -- or as the IRS terms it "recycled" -- hard drive of former IRS official Lois Lerner, Lemon began by referring to Congressman Paul Ryan as “not a happy man today.” [MP3 audio here; Video below]
The debate over whether the National Football League team in the District of Columbia should change its name from the Washington Redskins to something “less offensive” was the subject when CNN Newsroom weekend anchor Don Lemon was a guest during The Tom Joyner Radio Show on Thursday.
Lemon started his commentary by talking about “bad words, words that you shouldn't say,” comparing the “N-word” to “the dreaded 'R-word'” as racially offensive terms. However, comedian Kevin Hart disagreed, noting that the only people being called “Redskins” are players on the professional football team.