Stephen A. Smith, “Know Mercy” podcast host, reacted differently to the news of Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon’s firings. Smith was surprised by Carlson’s departure from Fox News but wasn’t shocked by Lemon’s dismissal from CNN. He admitted to having favorite news personalities that he follows regularly, and while Carlson was not one of them, Lemon was someone he admired.
“Don Lemon has interviewed me on several occasions; he is not the dumbest man on television like former President Donald Trump always calls him; I respect Don Lemon, I like his work, he’s been a professional at CNN for 17 years, I am not here to disrespect Don Lemon.”
Smith suggests that if the public had access to the complete quote from Don Lemon regarding GOP presidential nominee Nikki Haley, their perception of the mainstream media’s narrative might have been different.
“My retort to those who have said that, including myself, is, but you said it,” Smith said. “In a world of soundbites, you may not have known the magnitude of how that situation was going to go, but damn it, you know a soundbite could get you caught out there. You’re too professional and experienced to find yourself in a situation where you’re on a morning show with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow. You sit up there and say a presidential candidate aged 51 is over her prime.”
According to Smith, Lemon was sharing the thoughts of other people about when a woman is considered too old instead of stating his own opinions on the subject.
“The fact of the matter is, he said what he said, and that soundbite is what everybody held on to. In my mind, that moment sealed his fate,” he added. “Not because that moment was worthy of sealing his fate, because people make mistakes; when you’re talking live on television with no seven-second delay, you’re going to say stuff sometimes that makes you say I should’ve caught myself. I thought it sealed his fate because I thought it was sealed from the moment he moved to morning television.”
