Don Lemon is suddenly being hailed as a hero. After a history of saying dumb things, his publicity stunt at a Minneapolis church covering anti-ICE protestors, might be the best thing that ever happened to him, and the worst for the First Amendment.
In today’s crazy environment, getting arrested is all it takes to be crowned a champion of free speech. He later stumbled into the best professional moment of his life, a coveted spot on Jimmy Kimmel’s couch, where he eagerly provided the play-by-play of his arrest by about a dozen federal agents while waiting for a hotel elevator. “All of a sudden I feel myself being jostled and people trying to grab me and put me in handcuffs.”
“They want to embarrass you. They want to intimidate you,” he said on ABC. “And they want to instill fear…but this is very serious. These are federal criminal charges.”
Kimmel said Lemon was “arrested for committing journalism.”
The longtime CNN host, an independent, and until recently, largely irrelevant commentator with a million-strong following on YouTube, eagerly seized the spotlight, and is vowing not to back down. He’s undoubtedly loving every second of the mainstream media’s embrace.
On Real Time with Bill Maher, MS NOW’s Joe Scarborough defended Lemon while framing his reporting as aggressive. “I think there has to be a differentiation between if somebody’s going in there and saying, ‘I’m not with them, can I ask you some questions?’ — because you’re going to have embeds in war, you’re going to have embeds in protests…there’s no doubt this was meant to scare other reporters, to scare other journalists.”
I found the entire spectacle downright chilling. It seemed like an extension of the Trump administration’s war on the press, designed to squash aggressive reporting. Journalists have already had to battle lawsuits from the president himself including CBS, ABC, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Lemon says he followed a group of demonstrators into a city church who were protesting because one of its pastors had a leadership role in ICE. The journalist, who claims he’s not an activist, was charged with federal civil rights crimes under the FACE act, which prohibits unimpeded access to religious worship.
His proposed arrest was shot down by a federal judge, enraging Attorney General Pam Bondi, who got a grand jury to deliver the criminal indictment that enabled his arrest. She, and others in the administration, craved the idea of prosecuting the openly partisan commentator who has been denouncing Donald Trump for years. He was released without bail.
The spectacle gave Trump a reason to cackle, with headlines like “Trump Squeezes Lemon.” The White House’s official account featured Don Lemon’s arrest and the quote, “When life gives you lemons…”
CNN supported its former employee with concerns about the First Amendment.“The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest warrant for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was ‘no evidence’ that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work.”
As far as the claim that he helped plan the protest, Lemon has been vigorously defending himself: “I want to make it clear…that I have no affiliation with the organization.” And he said, “I didn’t even know they were going into this church until we followed them there.”
There could hardly be a more flawed champion of a free press.
Lemon, 59, a longtime liberal crusader, has a long resume of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and it got him fired from not one, but two jobs. First from CNN, for among other things, saying then 52-year-old former South Carolina governor, and 2024 presidential candidate, Nikki Haley “isn’t in her prime.” And then by Elon Musk, who gave him a show, but soured on him when Lemon insisted on interviewing the X owner himself.
Also charged was award-winning independent CW journalist Georgia Fort, who made videos denouncing the charges. She has a track record of reporting on civil rights issues. Fort was arrested at her home while her children were there, livestreaming it as it happened. “As I reflect as a journalist…as I leave this federal courthouse today with one question. Do we have a Constitution? I should be protected under the First Amendment.”
It came down to whether or not Lemon knew the protestors were going into the church, whether he told them not to divulge where they were going, or if, as prosecutors allege, he was part of the group.
Having covered similar events, there is a fine line between chronicling the crowd and getting swept up by the mob. Lemon may have gone too far, but so does arresting someone for what normally would be seen as a flamboyant exploit. Arrest is supposed to be the last resort, not the opening move.
In a saner era, free speech was defended by people like Edward R. Murrow, who stood up against McCarthyism, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers – risking their careers, and livelihoods, to fight abusive government.
My instincts as a journalist make me want to come out forcefully for Lemon, even though I’m hardly a fan. But I’m holding my nose doing it.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
