Don Lemon, who will no longer headline CNN’s evening programme but will instead co-host the new morning programme alongside Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow, is happy with the network’s most recent changes.
After a spate of network firings of journalists who were too harshly critical of Donald Trump and the GOP, Lemon said in a statement on Thursday night that the shift was a promotion and stressed that the network wasn’t forcing him to modify his left-leaning views.
‘This is not someone telling you to go to the right and stop sharing your point of view, Don Lemon. That hasn’t occurred at all, Lemon said. “All of it is Twitter fodder.”
I wasn’t downgraded, “None of it,” he continued. There is a chance here. This is an advancement.
“This is a chance for me to build something around me and I get to work with two wonderful women,” the speaker said.
The ‘New Day’ programme presented by John Berman and Brianna Keilar, which airs from 6 to 9am, will be replaced by the production of the trio, which also includes Harlow and Collins.
There is no better skill combination than Don, Poppy, and Kaitlan to deliver on our promise of a revolutionary morning news broadcast, according to CEO Chris Licht.
They possess a remarkable and tangible connection and are very clever, trustworthy, and fascinating individuals. We will provide a shrewd, audacious, and novel approach to start the day when combined with CNN’s resources and worldwide news collecting skills.
As he works to get rid of and guide the channel away from “opinion-based political journalism” and hosts who criticise conservatives and the GOP, the choice is one of Licht’s most notable ones.
In order to be ready for his morning premiere, Lemon, 56, will wrap up Don Lemon Tonight.
The seasoned anchor co-moderated the 2020 Democratic Presidential Debate and spent 16 of his 40 years in journalism with CNN.
Now that he is sharing the limelight with two of his “dearest friends,” Lemon said that it is time to “mix things up.”
Republicans and former President Trump are heavily criticised by Lemon. He earlier referred to Trump as “the greatest snowflake of them all” during the January 6 raid on the White House in 2021.
Following the 2020 presidential election, he was also quite vocal about election fraud and said Trump and Republicans were giving GOP supporters “bullsh**.”
Collins, 30, is CNN’s White House Correspondent and has a history of making Trump’s list of least favourite reporters.
Before the press conference began, the famed reporter was requested to switch seats with another reporter a few rows behind her during a press briefing on the 2020 coronavirus.
Even when authorities threatened to contact the secret service, she refused to walk across the room and invoked the WHCA standards.
Following his earlier claim that briefings weren’t “worth the time and effort” because the “Lamestream Media asks nothing but nasty questions,” Trump abruptly ended his briefing.
Harlow is also the anchor for CNN New Room and the presenter of the CNN podcast Boss Files. She joined the journalistic industry in 2008.
Harlow, 40, expressed her admiration of the accomplishment.
“I can’t wait to laugh with [Lemon and Collins] and pick their brains each morning,” the speaker said.
The pair will serve additional unspecified roles in the new programme, which will follow the finale of Berman and Keilar’s New Day programme.
Since Licht promised to restore CNN’s credibility with the public by ending the smear campaigns against Republicans, the network has been working to shed its status as a media outlet for the politically aware.
As a consequence of the new movement, well-known CNN anchors like John Harwood and Brian Stelter were fired, along with their programmes.
Licht previously alerted CNN staff members to impending network changes that they would “not comprehend” or “enjoy.”
Although it’s unknown when the new morning programme will debut in October or if the hosts will follow Licht’s new rules, the new CEO doesn’t seem afraid to fire prominent journalists.