South Beach Sessioins - Don Lemon
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How did Don Lemon’s exit from CNN unfold and why did he stop watching the network?
You're listening. to Draft Kings Network.
That made me angry. I wasn't afraid uh and I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid of Donald Trump's punk ass at all. And I think most journalists need to be. I'm not afraid of him. He's a coward. He's a coward.
Hello and welcome to South Beach Sessions. You know I love talking to the journalism journalists, and nobody finds journalists more interesting than other journalists do. Don Lemon is an icon, his story is fascinating. There's an arrest, there's firing, there's all the things that are in the fire, and there's also excellent work. The Don Lemon Show, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. What am I missing? Don What uh YouTube did you? I did. I did say YouTube, Twitch, Twitch, uh Substack, Substack the iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. A lot of places. He's free and independent. Yeah. He's liberated. The Don Lemon channel is coming to you soon. Soon. And fascinating. He's touring right now with DL Hughley.
He'll be the subject of a future South Beach sessions that I'm also excited about. But thank you for being here. I appreciate you making the time. I appreciate you making the time.
Real pleasure to meet you. Real pleasure. Mike was a huge fan. I was like, wait, I've been trying forever to get on this show. Really? Well, you guys reached out and it just didn't the scheduling didn't work out. And so I you know, I would say they said, Well, he shoots in LA and I said, Well, when are we gonna be in LA? We tried to make it work there, tried to make it work in New York. And as you know, when you're start I just started doing this two and a half years ago. And it it's um it's way more work than people realize.
Well that's uh that's one of the many things that I've learned here what they say about entrepreneurship. It's uh instead of uh forty hours working for someone else making more money, you work a hundred hours for yourself making less money. But there's great freedom in it, there's great fulfillment in it, and I've got a thousand questions for you about what your experience was like. Not exactly a softball to spar to start, but what are the details that you remember about getting fired? Because you had three years on on on your contract left, and I'm wondering how surprised you were by that, because I know in my case when I was at ESPN, I really didn't think that my future was in danger. I thought that I thought the media was more stable than it actually was.
Well I knew something you know the
I knew that they wanted me out, right? Um and then they offered me to do the morning show and I was like, uh, didn't want to do it. And then they offered me a big deal and I said, Okay, they really want me to move. And so um I thought maybe I would ride 'em out a a little bit. Um, but then when I got in there, they they did things that they uh had promised that they wouldn't do and then they Um did things that they they did some other things, right? Um purpose are you purposely ambiguous there? Yeah, well they asked me to train like the new person coming in. They didn't ask me. They told me later on. I said, What what's the deal? And they're like, Well we want you to train her and I'm like, that's not my job.
And then so that became really contentious and um people thought that that the issue was between the issues on the set were between me and the anchors and it was not. It was between management that had set us up and pitted us against each other. So, um, I haven't really told that story. You're kinda getting that. But they asked me to train one of the younger anchors there and I said, nice enough person, but that's not my job. And I said, you know, no one trained me as an anchor. No one brought me in and set me up and said, We're gonna have someone, another anchor, more senior, experienced anchor train you. I said, We're starting a new show. I'm the senior anchor on the show. You guys perhaps should have told me that before you asked me to do this.
And so so I had some idea then and quite frankly, when they came to me, there was a bit of a relief. It's weird.
Well take me through some of that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Don Lemon’s exit from CNN unfold and why did he stop watching the network?
0:01–6:55
2
What happened during Don Lemon’s anti‑ICE protest arrest and why does he think he was targeted?
6:55–15:34
3
How did Don Lemon transition from network news to building his own media business?
15:34–25:36
4
What lessons did Don Lemon learn from the corporate culture at CNN and Warner Brothers Discovery?
25:36–34:52
5
How did Don Lemon’s upbringing in Baton Rouge and his early awareness of his sexuality shape his career?
34:52–43:31
6
Why does Don Lemon consider authenticity and transparency essential to his journalism?
43:31–52:42
7
What are Don Lemon’s views on Trump, the justice system, and the current political climate?
52:42–1:01:10
8
How does Don Lemon describe the freedom he feels now with The Don Lemon Show and his touring with D.L. Hughley?
1:01:10–1:07:49
Speakers
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