Former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who was fired from the leftist network in April 2023, hadn’t even aired his first show in his venture with Elon Musk before the X owner soured on the deal and summarily terminated him this week after an interview the two did together. Ever since, there’s been a slew of accusations going back and forth about why this went down, with Lemon accusing Musk of reneging on his free speech guarantees because he didn’t like the direction of the questions:
The one-and-half hour grilling included testy exchanges about Musk’s political leanings, his past drug use and the site’s content moderation policy. It is scheduled to run on YouTube next week.
Musk fired back by saying that Lemon’s approach was basically just “dull” and “underwhelming” and that he was trying to be “CNN, but on social media’, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”
Clearly, the interview must have been awkward, shall we say:
As the two continue lobbying accusations at each other, a new report from the NY Post claims that Lemon thought he had more juice than he really did and annoyed Musk by trying to put the squeeze on him with a series of outlandish demands.
The ex-CNN anchor sent over an astronomical wish list to Elon Musk during contract talks to host a show on the billionaire’s social media platform X – including a free Tesla Cybertruck, a $5 million upfront payment on top of an $8 million salary, an equity stake in the multibillion-dollar company, and the right to approve any changes in X policy as it relates to news content, according to a document reviewed by The Post.
Lemon — who was expected to air an interview with Musk for next week’s debut episode on X — had also demanded a private jet flight to Las Vegas, a suite for him and his fiance, and that the company pay for their day drinking and massages, a source with knowledge of the situation said.
Gulp. That’s a lot of stuff for a fired former anchor to demand. It’s unclear what made him think that he would be worth any of that, since last I checked he wasn’t in heavy demand and the ratings on his last show at CNN were buried in the basement.
Lemon’s agency vehemently denied he made such exorbitant requests, with an executive saying, “This is absolute, complete utter nonsense without an iota of truth to it.”
At this point we don’t know why Musk canned the Lemon—was it because of his questioning, his demands, or both? What is clear is that this situation has gotten ugly quickly. I’m not surprised that the fired broadcaster annoyed Musk, because Lemon is an accomplished expert at annoying people. What does surprise me is that a man as smart as Musk didn’t have the sense to stay as far away as he could from this character.
