CNN’s Don Lemon sent threatening messages to a young, female, c0-anchor after being passed over for an assignment in Iraq, Variety magazine revealed this week.
Lemon – who had already been assigned “formal training” for “past her prime” comments directed toward former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, in February – is alleged to be the progenitor of aggressive text messages sent to other colleagues from a so-called “burner phone”.
Variety reports:
While Phillips was on assignment in Iraq — a high-profile gig that Lemon coveted — he vented his disappointment at being passed over by tearing up pictures and notes on top of and inside Phillips’ desk in the news pod they shared, according to two sources who worked there at the time. When she returned from Iraq, things only got weirder. One night while dining with members of the news team, she received the first of two threatening text messages from an unknown number on her flip phone that warned, “Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it.” Phillips was visibly rattled and quickly enlisted CNN’s higher ups to identify the sender.
Remarkably, the texts were traced back to Lemon, according to those same sources. A human resources investigation was launched, and while the findings were never disclosed to the growing pool of staffers who were aware of the situation, Lemon was abruptly pulled from his co-anchor duties with Phillips and moved to the weekends. It was a demotion by any objective measure and understood to be some kind of disciplinary action. It appears to be the last time he was paired with a female anchor until his most recent assignment on “CNN This Morning With Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins.”
More than a dozen former and current colleagues have suggested Lemon regularly flouts company rules, all the while attempting to curry favor with network leadership.
He is a “shameless name dropper,” claimed one former colleague, describing the heavy-drinking 57-year-old as regularly telling others of his relationships with ostensibly important people.
Former colleague Soledad O’Brien told Variety, “Don has long had a habit of saying idiotic and inaccurate things, so [his derogatory comments] sounds pretty on brand for him.”
The anchor has been accused of “diva-like behavior” as well as a litany of offenses including the Jussie Smollett hoax. For all the accusations, CNN appears to be standing by him, though this may change given the latest attempts to unseat him, clearly being driven by colleagues.
What may appear at CNN next would surely be far worse, as the woke, anti-Trump anchor is in effect being accused of being involved in “toxic masculinity” around women in his workplace. Still, such behavior would not be surprising from a left-wing public figure, the hypocrisies amongst which are hardly rare.
In response, a publicist for Lemon told the Los Angeles Times: “The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip… It’s amazing and disappointing that Variety would be so reckless.”
