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Don Lemon Goes From Sour to Bitter

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Feb 16, 2023
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02.16.23

Anti-Social Media – CNN

  • He seriously is looking to get fired, isn't he?

More sparks are flying at the CNN morning show today. Don Lemon weighed in on the Nikki Haley furor, but give the man a little credit; at least he did not lean into the racist tropes that have been hurled following her announcement to run for POTUS. Instead, Don turned harshly sexist.

Management clearly got to him because after unapologetically defending himself on the air, the host came out with a public apology concerning his comments.

Stealth Story Evolution – CNN

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  • "But when I do it, I am not guilty."

On the subject of imbalanced outrage that Nikki Haley does not go by her first name, one individual weighing in with the accusation may not be acting in a racist fashion – but she is acting in a mentally stunted fashion. Asha Rangappa accuses Haley of her name flip for the sake of dodging some alleged racist reaction (Haley has gone by "Nikki" since her school days), despite Nikki being a common Punjabi name. 

But making this accusal so ridiculous is that Rangappa ALSO goes by…her middle name. When social media accounts began noting this discrepancy, Rangappa quietly altered her screen name on Twitter back to her full birth name.

Low Octane Gas Lighting – NEWS NATION

Chris Cuomo made a splash in the news cycles this week. No, he did not break a news story or interview a prominent figure – he shot his mouth off on Anthony Scaramucci's podcast.

In discussing things he went through following his dismissal from CNN, Cuomo said, "I was going to kill everybody, including myself. Things can consume you – Italians are so passionate."

When this story was broken by the New York Post, it created quite the reaction, and as such, Chris had to come out and…and really, he wanted to deny it?

First off, about the single quotes matter – that is the style used by the NY Post. Look at any of their entries on social media, and they employ the single quotation mark. But as far as his words, those were quoted accurately. How do we know? There is audio of Cuomo saying that sentence to Scaramucci. Listen here.

Gilded Reframe – POLITICO

There was a rally in the state capital of Florida yesterday, as Al Sharpton trucked in a number of people to complain about school programs in the state where they do not live. Al Sharpton led a march and gave a speech, predictably railing about Ron DeSantis wanting to erase black history from Florida schools.

Yes, this is all the furor swirling around the AP black history course that was altered, but Politico slips up and gives away the flaw in the outrage. See, there are laws on the books in the state that black history, slavery, the Holocaust, and similar topics are required to be taught in schools. (Small detail, those were implemented with a DeSantis signature.) And as Politico explains, the controversy is all concerning a course that was about to be implemented – that is, it was a "new" course study that was being denied due to elements that were political and concerned queer studies and other disapproved topics.

Reporting on the Mirror – NEWSMAX

The LA Times takes a look into the ongoing dispute between Newsmax and DirectTV. Weeks ago, the news channel was dropped from the satellite provider over carriage disputes, and as the on-air accusations continue at the channel, the evidence is moving in the opposite direction.

DirectTV reps have stated that previous deals with Newsmax had the channel being carried at no licensing expense. Now, it is Newsmax that is demanding they be paid to carry the network, but the issue is that they simply do not generate the type of rating to justify the added expense for Direct. 

In other words, the news channel is looking for a better payout but is not operating at an amount of strength to leverage that kind of deal.