Longtime CNN host Don Lemon is out on the US cable news community slightly over two months after apologising to viewers for on-air feedback about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, CNN has introduced.
“CNN and Don have parted ways,” CNN chair Chris Licht mentioned in a memo to workers that was additionally posted on the community’s communications Twitter account.
“Don will forever be a part of the CNN family, and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him well and will be cheering him on in his future endeavours.”
CNN didn’t present a public rationalization for Lemon’s departure.
But on the CNN This Morning co-host’s personal Twitter account, Lemon contended the news got here as a shock to him and characterised it as a firing.
He had appeared on his present that morning.
“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned,” he wrote in a press release posted shortly after noon.
“After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network.”
In mid-February, Lemon brought on an uproar when, throughout a dialogue on CNN This Morning with co-hosts Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins in regards to the ages of politicians, he mentioned that the 51-year-old Haley was not “in her prime”.
A lady, he mentioned, was thought of in her prime “in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s”.
Harlow challenged Lemon, making an attempt to make clear what he was referencing: “I think we need to qualify. Are you talking about prime for child-bearing or are you talking about prime for being president?”
“Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are,” Lemon responded.
He introduced up the topic once more an hour later, and was rebutted by commentator Audie Cornish.
Lemon issued a press release saying he regretted his “inartful and irrelevant” feedback, which Haley herself known as the feedback sexist and used to fundraise.
He was subsequently absent from the present for 3 days, returning the next week with a tweeted apology however no point out of the episode on air.
Licht advised staffers in a memo on the time that Lemon would bear “formal training” however didn’t specify what that may entail.
Licht added that it was vital to him that the community “balances accountability with… fostering a culture in which people can own, learn and grow from their mistakes”.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
