In the Atlantic's latest profile on Chris Licht, the new head over at CNN,
we got a little bit of an inside scoop in regard to the firing of Don Lemon.
Some of the elements to this profile were petty, to say the least, but a question
regarding Don Lemon's opinionated nature came up quite a bit as well.
So apparently,
Chris Licht had major issues with how opinion aided Don Lemon was as a host.
Even he claims that in some cases, don Lemon didn't even need to be opinionated,
but felt the need to inject his opinion anyway.
He says the following,
I'm going to tell Don the biggest mistake is commenting after every single story.
For the sake of commenting after every single story, Licht said,
talking to no one and everyone all at once.
Don't tell me, That's horrible.
We know that it's horrible.
If you've got a specific insight into something, if you can add something,
tell us.
But don't comment on every single effing story.
>> I totally disagree.
You want to do an interesting morning show, and your idea for
an interesting morning show is make sure you don't have opinions.
Make sure you don't do commentary.
So you think three robots reading a prompter, a script that a producer wrote?
Yeah, I grant you that in the 1980s and 90s, as Licht and
Zucker and all these guys were coming up, that was considered interesting.
And I swear to God, I read many articles about how Katie Kirk was such an excellent
news anchor in the Today's show because of her winning smile.
Like, they would say that as if it makes sense, right?
So we're not in those days anymore.
The Internet exists.
You have to actually be interesting in order to get an audience.
And saying, I just be the robot, that is not going to cut it.
So go ahead.
Turn them all into robots.
Your ratings will only get worse.
I guarantee it.
>> Now, Licht, of course, decided to take Don Lemon out of the nighttime lineup and
instead move him over to a morning show, right?
And that morning show had the co hosts Caitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow, and
it ended up being a disaster.
Now, why did Chris Licht make that decision?
Licht created this new show in hopes of injecting some flavor into CNN's lineup.
He thought partnering Lemon, the opinionated, gay, black Southerner,
with a pair of hard hitting female news reporters could be the fun viewers needed.
But Licht, I sensed, was not having fun.
>> But if you don't let him make any comments, how's it going to be fun?
How is pairing up three news actors and
making them read robotic scripts going to be fun?
>> Okay, so in the control room, as they were doing rehearsals for
this morning show, here's what was going on.
Here's what Licht was engaging in.
[LAUGH] Okay.
The show started back up with the camera centered on Lemon.
He had changed into a white jacket the collar made of fur with a turtleneck
underneath.
What the f is he wearing?
Licked blurted out.
Nervous chuckles echoed around us.
A little while later, a younger producer spoke into Lemon's earpiece.
Don, we're not too crazy about the jacket in here.
Lemon looked miffed.
Licked fought back a smirk.
Why are you guys so mean to Don?
He asked.
>> Look, that's not the most important excerpt from the piece, but, man,
working in that environment would make me miserable, to say the least.
>> Yeah. So first of all,
they got a nonstop soap opera over there, okay?
So that's what's happening behind the scenes as the world turns, okay?
Secondly, let him wear the jacket.
It might actually attract some attention.
You guys are in the attention business, okay?
>> Yeah. >> Making things insipid,
I don't understand their logic at all, I don't know.
Everybody lives in their own bubble and in their alternate reality,
dispassionate super boring robotic anchors, just reading scripts and
never commenting and wearing super boring clothes is exciting and fun.
>> [LAUGH] Right? That's such a good point.
That's such a good point.
>> And they say it with a straight face.
And everyone agrees.
They're like, Chris Licht screwed up by putting down lemon on he might wear
an interesting jacket.
They think that's the mistake.
>> Okay, so let's get back to the serious stuff.
So earlier in the piece, Licht was quoted as saying that part of the problem with
CNN during the Trump administration was that everything was at an eleven.
Everything was an emergency,
everything was worth panicking about anything that Trump did or
said was worth panicking about, and that they needed to tone that down.
That's what Licht's thinking is, right?
Now, Don Lemon disagrees with that entirely.
He was interviewed by this Atlantic reporter as well, and
this is what he was quoted as saying.
Some people may want to qualify it as outrage porn, but
there was a lot to be outraged for these last few years.
There was a tweet or a statement or an action or
something that was outrageous a few times a day for five, six years, he said.
What we were doing is we were fighting for democracy.
We were fighting to set the record straight on us being attacked and
called fake.
That may have put us back on our heels and made us a bit more aggressive with
calling it out, but it doesn't mean that it was outrage porn.
Poppy Harlow actually disagreed with that a little bit, and
The Atlantic notes that it's perhaps due to her straight news background, but
Lemon wasn't having any of it.
He said,
A lot of people are Monday morning quarterbacking about what happened.
You have to remember the time that we were in every single day we were being attacked
by the former administration.
And that's not hyperbole.
We had bombs sent to us or to this very network.
I think that was the strongest point that Don Lemon made, because there was so
much chaos that it's easy to forget those things.
I'm just keeping it 100 with you guys, right?
And that was terrifying.
A guy literally sent bombs to all of these Trump opponents, including CNN.
>> Yeah. So, look,
I'll give you a sense of outrage form versus reality, right?
So I remember Donald Trump threatened some company that was outsourcing jobs,
and people were like, Dakota, you believe he's threatening a company like that?
It was like, yeah, I can that's actually one of the very rare things he's doing
well, because I don't want the jobs outsourced.
And the President is supposed to fight for American jobs.
And you might disagree with how he's doing it, but
that's actually an interesting thing.
No, everything Trump did had to be opposed.
No one could think about it, and everybody had to disagree at an eleven, okay?
So, no, you don't have to disagree with everything.
Plus, Trump is a target rich environment.
He gives you 100 insane things that you can talk about.
Overall, Do I agree with Don Lemon on this?
Yes, I do.
Most of it was real.
It was five to six times a day, and it was nuts, right?
Calling that outrage porn, all of it, outrage porn is outrageous because
you're saying, like when he said we should inject bleach into our
lungs to cure COVID, they were not supposed to be outraged by that.
They were supposed to be like, yeah, that's a legitimate possibility, and
maybe we should inject clorox.
No, you should be outraged by that.
Okay, so now, the thing is, guys, this is all bizarro world, because on this show,
we've shown you many instances throughout the long time that Don Lemon now has been
on CNN, where he's kind of been the model of a milk toast anchor.
>> I know it's crazy.
>> But now they're painting him as, like, a warrior journalist,
one that is way too harsh on the powerful.
Don Lemon is too harsh on the powerful because he said, hey,
that guy who wanted to bomb and murder us maybe not a good guy?
That's a bridge too far?
Now they've all lost their minds, man.
They couldn't challenge the powerful if their life's dependent on it.
As much as Chris Licht has been wrong in the different ways that we've explained
throughout today and before, this is kind of a witch hunt and a scapegoating.
It's all Chris Licht.
He's like, in a sense, he's the pain sponge right from succession.
And so they think by getting rid of Chris Licht,
they're going to solve their problems.
They're not.
I'll tell you right now, they're going to make their problems worse.
The next guy is going to be Chris Licht on steroids.
He's going to want to go more centrist, meaning more Republican,
more corporate, more everything, more boring.
And their ratings are only going to get worse and worse and worse.