Don Lemon is currently unavailable to anchor “The Don Lemon Show,” but that doesn’t mean the show has gone silent.
A group of prominent creators, influencers and media workers on Friday urged viewers who call themselves “Lemonheads” to keep Lemon’s YouTube channel active and support the journalist who was arrested and charged with federal civil rights crimes while trying to livestream a protest at a Minnesota church service in early January. Lemon was arrested in Los Angeles and is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon. Others were arrested on similar charges Friday, including Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort.
“We can’t be scared,” Katie Pan, who anchored an hour of “The Don Lemon Show,” said Friday afternoon, urging viewers to subscribe to Lemon’s media assets. The former MSNBC opinion host, who now runs an independent media outlet, spoke with Bulwark’s Tim Miller, among others. “This is definitely a moment in time.”
At the bottom of the screen, a single chiron remained unchanged: “Breaking News: Don Lemon Arrested.”
Lemon’s YouTube channel began reporting on the arrest at 10 a.m., according to a person familiar with the matter. Among those performing were comedians DL Hughley, Joy Reid, Wajahat Ali, Jim Acosta, Anthony Scaramucci, and Olivia Troy.
Since leaving CNN in 2023, Lemon has spent most of his time leading independent media operations, focusing on YouTube, Tik Tok and Instagram, interacting with reporters and people on the street. “It doesn’t happen very often that you get to this stage in your life and reinvent yourself and learn new things,” Lemon told Variety in early January. He added that his retirement forced “me” to change direction and that as a result, “I feel younger and more part of the culture and zeitgeist than I did when I worked for the news organization.”
Lemon was in Los Angeles to work on the Grammys, part of a strategy he has focused on live events. He recently performed a New Year’s Eve show from New Orleans in a sort of reboot of the job he was doing for CNN after Anderson Cooper hosted in Times Square. He wasn’t entirely sure he could get through it all. He needed to hire a production crew and camera personnel and ensure proper connectivity to ensure the event space remained intact throughout the day. He also had to make sure his interviews were sponsored, and his team provided Don Julio Tequila.
A groundswell of support has grown since Lemon’s arrest was announced Friday morning, with CNN and others expressing regret.
“It is deeply disturbing that the federal government is prosecuting journalists for their reporting, and it is even more disturbing that the federal government continues to pursue these charges over a magistrate judge’s refusal to sign an arrest warrant and over challenges from career prosecutors,” the ACLU said in a statement. “This sends a chilling message to other journalists reporting on the regime’s actions and should be understood in the context of the government’s broader crackdown on press freedom.”
