Don Lemon attends The 15th Annual CNN Heroes: All-Star Tribute at American Museum of Organic Background on December 12, 2021 in New York City.
Mike Coppola | Getty Visuals Leisure | Getty Images
Previous CNN anchor Don Lemon announced Wednesday that Elon Musk has canceled a partnership in which Lemon would host a new demonstrate on X, the social media system Musk owns.
Lemon reported he was informed of the selection to cancel the offer just several hours just after he taped an interview with Musk for the premiere of The Don Lemon Exhibit on March 18.
“We experienced a fantastic conversation. Plainly he felt in different ways,” Lemon reported of the interview in a statement Wednesday. “His determination to a worldwide town square where by all questions can be asked and all thoughts can be shared appears to be not to contain questions of him from folks like me.”
“There ended up no limitations on the interview that he willingly agreed to, and my questions were respectful and wide ranging, masking all the things from SpaceX to the presidential election,” Lemon’s assertion claimed.
Musk stated in a article on X later Wednesday that “as a substitute of it becoming the true Don Lemon, it was seriously just Jeff Zucker talking via Don, so lacked authenticity. All this claimed, Lemon/Zucker are of course welcome to make their viewership on this system along with absolutely everyone else.” Zucker is the previous president of CNN.
Musk has known as himself a Initial Modification and free of charge speech advocate for several years. When he took over Twitter, he reinstated accounts that experienced been forever suspended under prior administration, which include that of former President Donald Trump. At the similar time, he has shown minor tolerance for his employees’ free of charge speech and has banned or suspended various critics on X considering the fact that taking in excess of the corporation.
Lemon stated his clearly show would carry on inspite of the deal’s cancellation. The interview with Musk will be posted on YouTube and podcast platforms and will however be printed on X, Lemon said.
“The Don Lemon Demonstrate is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we imagine in delivering a platform for creators to scale their do the job and join with new communities,” the company account for X said in a assertion on the web site. “Nonetheless, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make selections about our small business partnerships, and after very careful thought, X decided not to enter into a industrial partnership with the demonstrate.”
Lemon expects to be paid for the partnership with X, according to Allison Gollust, a spokesperson for the former cable news anchor and the previous main internet marketing officer at CNN.
“Don has a deal with X and expects to be paid for it. If we have to go to court docket we will,” Gollust mentioned in a assertion to CNBC.
X announced in January that Lemon would host a exhibit on the system, in addition to packages by former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and sports commentator Jim Rome. Lemon was fired from CNN previous yr pursuing sexist on-air comments and stories he mistreated coworkers.
CNBC reached out to Musk, a single of his lawyers, Alex Spiro, and Twitter independently. It remains unclear what, if any, agreement experienced been organized and what the conditions of any partnership ended up among X and The Don Lemon Clearly show.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.