Telepeer

Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon get shown the door

April 29, 2023

Last week, Fox News star Tucker Carlson found out he was a small cog in the giant machine that is the Murdoch media empire. As popular as his show was, it was not as popular as Bill O’Reilly’s Fox show, and when O’Reilly was cashiered, the network rolled on without skipping a beat.

Meanwhile, CNN did a little house cleaning as well.

Don Lemon, once a rising star for reasons that are still lost on me, was canned the same day as Tucker Carlson. It’s hard not to wonder if someone at Fox didn’t call someone at CNN and say, “Hey, why not take out our trash on the same day?”

Lemon getting squeezed did not merit the same attention as Tucker’s termination, mostly, I believe, because not many people realized he still had a show. After being bumped from prime time to morning show oblivion, Don Lemon only made headlines for saying creepy things about GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley being “past her prime,” and apparently, being a jerk around his co-workers.

Bias alert! I never watched Tucker Carlson and haven’t seen Don Lemon since he asked the former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, if Malaysian Airlines flight 370 could have been “swallowed by a black hole,” which was possibly the dumbest question in the history of open microphones.

That he remained employed as a news anchor after that, and his drunken foolishness on CNN’s annual unwatchable New Year’s Eve fiasco, might be a head-scratcher, but falls under the heading of normal TV incompetence. But Lemon’s transgressions jumped the shark when he tipped off race-fraudster Jussie Smollett that the Chicago PD considered him a suspect in what turned out to be a fake hate crime. It’s never good when a newsman makes the news. It’s much worse when a newsman interferes in an active police investigation by tipping off the lead suspect.

Yet, Lemon kept his job.

Just like Tucker Carlson kept making his millions despite the multitude of misinformation he regularly broadcast, including an astonishing anti-American “documentary” claiming what we all saw on Jan 6, 2021 wasn’t so bad. As if smearing human feces in the halls and walls of the United States Capitol building is just another day in D.C.

We’ll likely never know all the reasons Tucker was cut loose; both Fox and Carlson have a mutual interest in not ticking each other off, unlike Lemon who immediately whined on social media only to have CNN call him a liar. Still, people at Fox have gossiped, and it appears Carlson said some pretty graphic things about his colleagues and management, in emails and texts, and that rarely ends well. This was the cherry on top of the expensive sundae of lawsuits, including the almost $800 million dollar judgment Carlson helped Dominion Voting Systems win against Fox for stolen election lies, with Smartmatic in the on-deck circle, along with former Carlson booker, Abby Grossman, who is suing him and Fox over alleged hostility in the workplace.

The Murdochs said, “Enough.”

Opinion |

Joe Biden’s re-election bid is off to a bad start

Opinion |

The ongoing assault on internet freedom

Opinion |

Larry Wilson: A country crazy for its guns continues to let criminals possess guns and kill people

Opinion |

If you don’t like San Francisco, that’s fine, but don’t spread tall tales about it

Opinion |

Californians continue to pay high gas taxes for bad roads

Musical anchor chairs are not new. Huntley-Brinkley are dead. So too, Uncle Walter. Peter Jennings is long gone, as is Barbara Walters. Dan Rather is sitting on his porch drinking Ensure while Brian Williams tells war stories to anyone who will listen. He’s still getting paid. Tucker Carlson has a loyal fan base and money in the bank. He will survive. Don Lemon can always do a podcast. Isn’t everyone? He’ll be alright, too.

But what about America?

What does all this mean for the news industry in 21st-century America? Not that many years ago, journalists were blue-collar workers. We turned news anchors into TV stars, big personalities with fans. Along the way, network anchors became bigger than the news they covered, infusing the first draft of history with their own opinions and predilections.

Paddy Chayefsky warned us in “Network.” Watch it.

Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. Reach him at: [email protected]. His novel “Frank’s Shadow” will be published in July.

Orange County Register

News Details

Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon get shown the door

Related Articles

News

CONTACT INFO

QUICK LINKS

SERVICES

CURRENT NEWS