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The Don Lemon Show

LEMON DROP | The Death Of Mainstream Media

23 Mar 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: Why did former CBS journalists leave mainstream media?

13.48 - 18.271 Don Lemon

Let's jump right into it because I want to talk about you guys were at 60 minutes at CBS, correct?

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18.291 - 18.552 Mabel Kabani

Yeah.

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18.692 - 29.818 Don Lemon

And then you decided, I guess it was over a year to go to do things differently and start your own podcast. And here we are.

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30.997 - 44.581 Mabel Kabani

Yeah, here we are. We took the same plunge that you did. We were just so frustrated being kind of feeling stifled at a network, realizing all the work we were doing wasn't even reaching for us, like people our age, like none of our peers were watching it.

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45.062 - 54.118 Mabel Kabani

And so we wanted to do something, taking what we learned there, making credible journalism for people our age and putting it where they'll actually be on social media.

54.301 - 64.522 Don Lemon

You said that people weren't really watching. What is it about a place like CBS, which we call the mainstream media, what is it about it that it's just so unappealing to young people?

Chapter 2: What factors make mainstream media unappealing to younger audiences?

66.386 - 86.47 Wren Woodson

I mean, there's so many things. I think working at 60 Minutes, as cool as it is to have this concentrated 12-minute segment on a topic, I think the pacing of the show The topics that they would choose would be so late. It's on, you know, you have to tune in to the broadcast. I think just there's so many things that make it so unaccessible, but people are on social media all the time.

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86.751 - 95.884 Wren Woodson

They're looking for quick news. That's interesting. That's in the language that they're speaking. So I think we just decided to change up the presentation and where we do the news.

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97.332 - 100.615 Don Lemon

And make it more accessible and reachable and younger.

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Chapter 3: How did the guests transition to independent media?

100.675 - 122.038 Don Lemon

I mean, a younger demographic because, listen, quite frankly, 60 Minutes, I look, is one of the, I believe, the premier, as you guys know, news programs in the world. And I don't think that history is going to look kindly upon the people, the person, or the people or persons who dismantled that. And so that is, that's not good news.

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122.118 - 134.983 Don Lemon

But since, are you happy you're not there now considering what's happening? How do you feel? I don't want to put words in your mouth. How do you feel about what has happened to CBS in 60 minutes since you left? Are you happy that you made that move and that you're not there now?

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135.25 - 137.934 Mabel Kabani

We are so happy. We say this to each other all the time.

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Chapter 4: What role does social media play in modern journalism?

137.954 - 157.019 Mabel Kabani

We're like, thank God we left when we did, because if we were there right now, we'd be wanting to get out. But it would be like a year and a half later. But it's so that said, it's so sad to see what's happening because we still have so many colleagues that we revere and that we know do such great work that are now stuck there while it just kind of slowly disintegrates.

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157.099 - 160.043 Mabel Kabani

The same thing I'm sure you feel about CNN.

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160.225 - 175.764 Don Lemon

Mabel, do you hear from... Well, yes, I do. And I haven't been quiet about it. Even though, like you said, you love the people who are there, right? And they're great journalists, but you feel for what they're dealing with because, look, it ain't pretty. Mabel, do you hear from folks there?

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176.946 - 182.733 Wren Woodson

Yeah, and people are, like Ren said, kind of going through the feelings that we did a couple years ago.

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Chapter 5: Why is independent media crucial in today's landscape?

182.753 - 197.101 Wren Woodson

I think it's really surprising that it takes so long to build up such an amazing show and an amazing institution like CBS. It takes decades of amazing work to build something like that up, but only like a year and like a person or like a group of people to break it down.

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197.141 - 205.183 Wren Woodson

Like it shows you how fragile these systems can be that like it takes so long to make something so great, but it, it can all come down so quickly. It's kind of scary.

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205.585 - 221.802 Don Lemon

So then how did you decide to do it? And when, Mabel, to be honest with you, I ran into you on the street, I was doing a live, you weren't even sure, because you know, that's how, think about it, that I can be live on just anywhere, right? And then the old days, you'd have to get a satellite truck and you do this and you have to do that.

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221.822 - 235.879 Don Lemon

And this was live and I ran into, I bumped into you on the street and you talked about your inspirations and the advice that you had been being given about making this move, this transition.

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Chapter 6: What challenges do journalists face when covering sensitive topics?

237.125 - 254.88 Wren Woodson

Yeah, just about how like following your instincts and taking the jump just because that seems to be where media is heading. It's becoming independent. It's leaving this corporate entity that people are just not trusting anymore. So like Ren said, we felt very inspired. But what you had done and we're just like, because Ren and I had been talking about it for a while.

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254.92 - 266.329 Wren Woodson

We were like, we need to make something for younger audiences. Should we do it? Should we not? We tried to actually launch it at CBS for a while because that would be the best of both worlds, right? We could stay at CBS and do something like this.

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Chapter 7: How do generational perspectives differ on current conflicts?

266.349 - 267.03 Don Lemon

They didn't want it.

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267.5 - 271.845 Wren Woodson

They like, everyone was interested and then nothing would actually get done. Like, you know how it goes.

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272.025 - 289.425 Don Lemon

So, I mean, Ryan, like we, I do, I remember not to cut you off, but I remember being at CNN and I wanted to do a podcast and we were doing it, we were doing a podcast and then, you know, Chris left and I was like, well, we can do this and do that. And they're like, yeah, but we were kind of moving away from that because podcasts are so expensive and whatever.

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289.465 - 309.988 Don Lemon

And I was like, and I kept thinking in my head. And I didn't have the knowledge that I have now, but it's like, yeah, if you don't have 47 people, you know, trying to do the podcast and the music and the whole thing and just let it be more organic. And then now that I'm doing this, those instincts were real. It should just be more natural, closer to the bone, closer to the ground.

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310.328 - 314.174 Don Lemon

So, I mean, sorry to cut you off, Mabel, but I know exactly what you're talking about.

Chapter 8: What future trends are emerging in journalism and media coverage?

314.235 - 317.52 Don Lemon

It's very hard to get them to understand that.

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317.855 - 330.632 Mabel Kabani

Yeah, they just won't. We even I guess I can say this now because he's not there anymore either. We talked to the executive producer of 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, and he told us if we want to do something like this. We told him our idea and our vision. He said, you have to go somewhere else.

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331.073 - 340.926 Mabel Kabani

Like, don't even waste your time at CBS because he was in way more like privileged conversations than we were and knew no one was willing to expand that far.

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341.969 - 362.968 Don Lemon

Yeah. But even now, there was an article that I saw. I just saw the headline. I didn't really read it. That they were trying to, I guess, in their streaming, or I don't even know if it's on their main programs, but trying to get their anchors to be more natural, like roll up their sleeves and not wear a necktie. And what was it?

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363.148 - 371.976 Don Lemon

They said that Jake Tapper was anchoring a program from his office desk. And it's like, oh, my gosh. It's kind of, I love those guys. It's kind of cringe. You know what I mean?

371.956 - 390.799 Wren Woodson

Yeah. Well, they're so behind the times, which is what's crazy. It's like we were pitching this around like 2019, 2020, 2021, kind of like around that time. And we felt like it was kind of the way that social media was headed. But media is just like multimedia organizations are just so behind the times and it took them so long.

390.84 - 396.867 Wren Woodson

And now they're like, yeah, maybe the anchor should roll up their sleeves a little, but like you're already behind what's happening now.

397.403 - 418.077 Don Lemon

Yeah. When they said, oh, this news organization is going to start doing direct-to-camera videos. And I'm like, that was five years ago. Yeah. Great, but there are other things now that people are doing like on the street mini dramas. Have you seen those? You know what I'm talking about? And I'm hooked.

418.698 - 428.327 Don Lemon

There's my friend, Bevy Smith does this little mini drama that they do on the streets of New York or in a restaurant or in a hotel or whatever. And it's fascinating and it's all social media.

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