X has canceled a high-profile partnership with former CNN host Don Lemon to stream a video discuss present on the platform. Lemon mentioned that the corporate canceled his contract hours after he interviewed X’s billionaire proprietor Elon Musk for the primary episode of “The Don Lemon Present,” which was scheduled to stream on the platform this Monday.
“Elon Musk is mad at me,” Lemon said in a video posted to X on Wednesday. “Apparently, free speech absolutism doesn’t apply on the subject of questions on him from folks like me.”
Lemon’s announcement got here a day after firm CEO Linda Yaccarino declared that X was turning into a “video first” platform. It introduced the partnership with Lemon in January as half of a bigger technique to stream extra authentic content material on the service. This included striking deals with former consultant Tulsi Gabbard and sports activities radio commentator Jim Rome to stream their very own reveals on the platform. Final yr, X reportedly made a similar deal with Tucker Carlson after he was fired from his internet hosting duties at Fox Information. X’s resolution to cancel Lemon’s present raises questions concerning the firm’s technique.
“The Don Lemon Present is welcome to publish its content material on X, with out censorship, as we imagine in offering a platform for creators to scale their work and join with new communities,” X said in a press release. “Nonetheless, like every enterprise, we reserve the suitable to make choices about our enterprise partnerships, and after cautious consideration, X determined to not enter right into a industrial partnership with the present.”
Lemon mentioned that he’ll now stream the primary episode of “The Don Lemon Present” on X, YouTube and different podcast platforms, and is making ready for a authorized struggle in case X refuses what’s reportedly a multi-million greenback payout. “Don has a cope with X and he expects to be paid for it,” a spokesperson for Lemon told Selection. “If we now have to go to court docket, we are going to.” Nonetheless, two nameless sources claimed to Semafor that Lemon could not have truly signed a contract with X. Musk has a historical past of withholding funds. A gaggle of former Twitter executives together with the corporate’s ex-CEO Parag Agrawal are suing Musk and X over tens of millions of {dollars} in unpaid severance advantages.
Lemon’s interview with Musk, which was recorded on Friday, spanned a variety of matters together with the presidential election, and, reportedly, the billionaire’s alleged ketamine use, the topic of a Wall Avenue Journal story revealed earlier this yr. “Hardcore questions had been requested,” Lemon told an X person. In a written assertion, Lemon mentioned that he had a “good dialog” with Musk, however the billionaire clearly didn’t appear to suppose so.
Musk wrote that Lemon’s method was “principally simply ‘CNN, however on social media’, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the truth that CNN is dying,” in response to a person asking X about particular causes for terminating the partnership with Lemon. “And, as a substitute of it being the true Don Lemon,” Musk sniped, “it was actually simply [former CNN President] Jeff Zucker speaking by means of Don, so lacked authenticity.”
Lemon was fired from CNN almost a yr in the past after making on-air remarks in opposition to former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley that many thought-about sexist and ageist, in addition to reports displaying he engaged in misogynistic habits over his 15-year tenure at CNN.
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