CNN is not letting Don Lemon have the last word. Shortly after the veteran anchor announced that he’d been terminated without direct contact from anyone at the network, the cable news giant took to Twitter to challenge its former employee’s interpretation of events.
Lemon confirmed his ousting on Twitter shortly after noon ET, saying that he was “stunned” when he first got word from his agent that he’d been let go. “After 17 years at CNN, I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” he said. (Watch CNN announce Lemon’s exit on air.)
But according to CNN, Lemon was offered an in-person meeting. “Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate,” CNN Communications tweeted. “He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”
CNN’s John King announced Lemon’s exit on air (with an assist from senior media reporter Oliver Darcy). “I don’t know the details happening while I’m sitting in the chair here,” King said. “But I work here, I love this place. I certainly wish Don the best. He’s always been good to me as a colleague.”
Lemon’s termination comes three weeks after our sister site Variety published an exposé in which more than a dozen of Lemon’s former and current colleagues outlined a pattern of allegedly misogynistic, inappropriate and “diva-like” behavior at the cable news network, and more than two months after he received backlash for a sexist statement he made on CNN This Morning in February.
In other cable news, Fox News on Monday announced that it had “parted ways” with primetime anchor Tucker Carlson. For more on that, go here.
