There’s been a reckoning in the media and that’s good news.
Don Lemon is out at CNN and Tucker Carlson has been shown the door at Fox. Both twisted the facts to their liking, with Lemon a repeat offender.
His misogynistic ways proved too much for CNN to stomach. Any credibility the cable channel still had was being eroded by Lemon’s presence. So he had to go and why not drop the news after Fox parted with their primetime host?
“I am stunned,” Lemon wrote of his firing on Twitter Monday.
Really? It’s stunning it took this long. Saying GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 51, was not “in her prime” should have cost him his job immediately. Instead, CNN let him stick around for two months.
Lemon’s demise hitting almost immediately after Carlson’s was CNN being cowardly. It was a calculated move to capitalize on a rival’s bigger announcement.
A full explanation has yet to surface why Carlson was dropped, but it comes days after Fox agreed to pay a staggering $787 million to settle a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over 2020 election allegations. If Carlson, as court documents attest, had doubts on any level about the storyline, he should have said so.
The voting public needs skeptical voices in the media, but CNN and Fox want viewers the easy way. When your opinions are based on faulty allegations — and you know what you are saying or writing is false — that’s actual malice. That’s when you need to pause and work harder.
Having reckless disregard for the truth in your reporting is a betrayal on so many levels. It’s not some lofty intellectual premise, it’s an insult to those who rely on you to keep digging for the facts. It ain’t easy. People push back and question your motivations. That’s why they call it work.
Don Lemon was a smug sexist buffoon. His predictable political commentaries were filled with flawed liberal talking points. Insulting Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, showed he never was a serious journalist. He was just an entertainer.
Carlson was twice as smart as Lemon, so his demise is more difficult to pick apart. What if he did voice his suspicions about the widespread voter fraud theory? Or questioned those pushing it? It probably would have saved his network $787 million.
Also Monday, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell stepped down after admitting to an “inappropriate relationship” with a female employee. That’s an obvious sin called out, as it should be, countless times in recent years.
Don Lemon, Tucker Carlson and Jeff Shell have set journalism back. That’s a fact.
What happens next will say a lot about these networks. Will Fox actually put someone with some journalist chops on air? Will CNN figure out the game they are playing? Will NBC try cleaning up the office?
The news media needs integrity now more than ever.
The 2024 presidential election is upon us and will only get hotter. We need pundits and professionals who will ask the tough questions and dig for the truth.
Lastly, President Biden and his circle — from secretive climate czar John Kerry to train-wreck son Hunter Biden — must be having a good day. The heat is off them. That’s exactly why the rest of us will just have to work harder.