Uproar Hits CNN Over Don Lemon's 'Distraction'

Don Lemon, the CNN morning-show anchor, faced an internal rebuke from the chairman of his own network on Friday after his on-air comments about women and aging set off an uproar inside the cable news channel.

The NY Times reports CNN’s chairman, Chris Licht, opened his daily 9 a.m. editorial call by saying the remarks by Mr. Lemon, which were widely viewed as sexist and insensitive, had left him “disappointed.”

“His remarks were upsetting, unacceptable and unfair to his co-hosts, and ultimately a huge distraction to the great work of this organization,” Mr. Licht told his staff, according to a recording of the call obtained by The New York Times.

It is unusual for a network chief to criticize a star anchor in such stark terms — but the situation involving Mr. Lemon and CNN’s struggling morning show is approaching a crisis point just months after its debut.

Lemon, a CNN veteran with a history of televised gaffes, roiled colleagues on Thursday when he asserted on the air that Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate, “isn’t in her prime, sorry.”

“A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” Mr. Lemon said, to the visible dismay of his “CNN This Morning” co-anchors, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. He refused to back down after Ms. Harlow questioned his remarks, telling her to “look it up.”

On Friday, a far more contrite-sounding Lemon addressed the matter in a six-minute monologue to the CNN newsroom.

Don Lemon's apology did not go over well. https://t.co/oVVz9Z07uu

— TMZ (@TMZ) February 17, 2023

“I am sorry,” Lemon said. “I did not mean to hurt anyone. I did not mean to offend anyone.” He added that “the people I’m closest to in this organization are women,” citing a list of female colleagues including the anchors Dana Bash and Erin Burnett.

Lemon was absent on Friday from his program’s broadcast, though he had previously said he was scheduled to take the day off; he dialed into the Friday call from Miami. A CNN spokesman said Lemon had not been formally suspended. The spokesman declined to comment further on personnel matters.