‘I Don’t Think It’s My Job to Coddle Bigots’: CNN’s Don Lemon Talks Covering Race as the Most Prominent Black Anchor on Cable
CNN Tonight anchor Don Lemon says the killings of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery changed the way he covered issues of race in America.
In this week’s episode of Mediaite’s The Interview podcast, Lemon spoke with our Aidan McLaughlin about the impact the Floyd and Arbery killings had on him as a journalist.
“Watching those two men die on camera really changed me and my thought process,” Lemon said. “And the way I conducted myself, and will continue to conduct myself now is, if you’re not going to get involved, if you’re not going to speak out, if you’re not going to be, as [author] Ibram Kendi says … ‘antiracist,’ then when are you going to do it? What are you looking for?”
For Lemon, that means taking a more firm stand on issues of social justice, and not being concerned about whether his views alienate part of his audience.
“I don’t worry about offending people anymore,” he said. “We’re past the point of offense. If you don’t like it, well too bad. Let’s just deal with it. Now, that doesn’t mean that I write people off necessarily. But I don’t feel that it’s my job to coddle bigots and racists. Or to coddle people who are unconsciously biased. It’s your job to catch up. I can help, but I’m not going to coddle you.”
The CNN Tonight anchor is the only person of color to host a show on cable news in the prime time window of 8-11 p.m. Lemon believes he has a responsibility to call out injustice, given the importance of his platform.
“There were times when I just wouldn’t say anything, I would let things pass,” Lemon said. “Now I don’t do that. Even at work, if I think someone is not being treated fairly in my place of business, I will speak out. Even if I think our coverage is off, I will speak out more vocally than I had before. And I think that I have an obligation to do that as a journalist, and the only anchor of color in primetime on CNN and in the cable landscape.”
McLaughlin followed up by asking Lemon whether he feels a burden in being the most prominent Black anchor on cable news.
“Of course I do,” Lemon said. “Who else is going to do it? There’s no one else who looks like me. I’m a Black man in America. I have a platform on international television every night. I have to be responsible, and I also have to sleep at night. I also have to look myself in the mirror. And I can’t look myself in the mirror by selling out, or pretending that what’s playing out on the streets of America, in the boardrooms, and in the workplaces, and in all businesses and facets of life in America, that it’s not happening. I can’t do that. I have to speak truth to power, and I have to tell my experience. I have to share my experience with America.”
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