Don Lemon

Don Lemon
Lemon at the 2018 Pulitzer Prizes
Born (1966-03-01) March 1, 1966
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.
Residence New York City, New York, U.S.
Education Baker High School
Alma mater

Brooklyn College

Louisiana State University
Occupation Journalist
Employer CNN
Awards

Don Lemon (born March 1, 1966) is an American journalist and author. He is a news anchor for CNN based in New York City, and hosts CNN Tonight.

Early life

Lemon was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was educated at Baker High School, a public high school in the town of Baker in East Baton Rouge Parish. He majored in broadcast journalism at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Louisiana State University.[1][2] While in college, Lemon worked as a news assistant at WNYW in New York City.

Career

In his earliest career, Lemon reported as a weekend anchor for WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama, and WCAU in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as well as an anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI St. Louis.[1]

Lemon reported for NBC News' New York City operations, including working as a correspondent for Today and NBC Nightly News and an anchor on Weekend Today and MSNBC. In 2003, he began at NBC owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV (5 in Chicago), and was a reporter as well as local news co-anchor.[1]

Lemon joined CNN in September 2006.[1] He has been outspoken in his work at CNN, criticizing the state of cable news and questioning the network publicly.[3] He has also voiced strong opinions on ways that the African-American community can improve themselves, which has caused some controversy.[4] Since 2014, he has hosted CNN's New Year's Eve special from New Orleans.

In a much-reported broadcast in January 2018, Lemon introduced his broadcast with, “This is CNN Tonight, I’m Don Lemon. The President of the United States is racist.”[5]

Personal life

During an on-air interview with members of Bishop Eddie Long's congregation in September 2010, Lemon said that he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child, and that it was not until he was thirty years old that he told his mother about it.[6]

In his memoir, Transparent, Lemon came out as gay[7] and discusses colorism in the black community, and the sexual abuse he suffered as a child.[8] He has Creole ancestry (his great-grandfather was of French descent) in addition to Nigerian, Cameroonian, and Congolese ancestry.[9][10]

In 2015, over 30,000 people signed a petition demanding that Lemon be fired from CNN following a controversial remark he made regarding police behavior.[11]

On January 31, 2018, Lemon's sister, L'Tanya "Leisa" Lemon Grimes, died at the age of 58; police concluded that her death was an accidental drowning in a pond while fishing.[12] After being absent for approximately a week, he opened the show on February 6 by thanking everyone who wished him "prayers and words of encouragement". He said that conservatives, like Sean Hannity, were among the first to call, which illustrated how they actually respect each other and have good relations, even though they disagree on the issues.[13]

Honors and awards

Lemon won an Emmy Award for a special report on the real estate market in Chicago.[14] He received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the capture of the D.C. area sniper,[15] and a number of other awards for reports on Hurricane Katrina, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Lemon was voted as one of the 150 most influential African-Americans by Ebony magazine in 2009.[16]

In 2014, however, Lemon's work was named in a list of worst journalism of the year by the Columbia Journalism Review, for his questions about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, spanking children, and US Army POW Bowe Bergdahl. He suggested to an alleged Bill Cosby rape victim that she could have resisted oral sex by biting him.[17][18]

Published works

  • Lemon, Don (2011). Transparent. Farrah Gray Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0982702789.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Don Lemon". CNN. Retrieved January 8, 2011.
  2. ↑ Don Lemon: Address; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Archived February 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Brooklyn College.
  3. ↑ Williams, Wyatt (December 22, 2011). "Can Don Lemon set CNN straight?". clatl.com. Creative Loafing (Atlanta). Retrieved December 23, 2011.
  4. ↑ Brett, Jennifer (August 2, 2013). "Fact-checking CNN's Don Lemon". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Retrieved August 3, 2013.
  5. ↑ Schmidt, Samantha (January 12, 2018). "'This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. The president of the United States is racist.'". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  6. ↑ Lemon, Don (September 25, 2010). "CNN Reporter Don Lemon Says That He Was Attacked By A Pedophile!". YouTube. Retrieved May 13, 2014.
  7. ↑ Folkenflik, David (May 16, 2011). "Livelihood 'On The Line', Anchorman Reveals He's Gay". NPR. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
  8. ↑ Carter, Bill (May 15, 2011). "Gay CNN Anchor Sees Risk in Book". The New York Times. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  9. ↑ "CNN Roots with Don Lemon: An Étouffée of Stories". Ancestry Blog. October 16, 2014. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  10. ↑ "familyhistoryinsider.com". Archived from the original on June 3, 2015.
  11. ↑ "More than 30,000 sign petition urging CNN to fire anchor Don".
  12. ↑ "CNN host Don Lemon's sister tragically died in a Louisiana fishing accident". February 2, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Don Lemon Returns to CNN After His Sister's Death: Your Prayers Have 'Meant the World to Me'". www.mediaite.com.
  14. ↑ "Anchors & Reporters - Don Lemon". CNN. 2012. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  15. ↑ Watts, Laurence (September 15, 2011). "Interview: Don Lemon, CNN's openly gay anchorman". Pink News. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  16. ↑ "CNN NEWSROOM transcript: Rep. Earl Pomeroy Discusses Saberi Conviction in Iran; Justice Department Releases New Details on Bush Administration Terror Policy; "Ebony" Magazine's Power 150; Maryland Tragedy". CNN.com. April 18, 2009.
  17. ↑ "CNN's Don Lemon Named to 'Worst Journalism of 2014' List". The Hollywood Reporter. December 26, 2014.
  18. ↑ Uberti, David (December 22, 2014). "The worst journalism of 2014". Columbia Journalism Review.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.