Don Lemon’s exit from CNN in April 2023 shocked the media industry. After taking his time to consider his options, the veteran journalist decided to work with Elon Musk’s X, f.k.a., Twitter to produce his own show for the platform. In March, he launched “The Don Lemon Show” with a high-profile interview with Musk. Shortly before the interview was set to premiere, Lemon announced that the tech mogul had canceled the show.
According to Variety, the situation became a legal issue on Thursday, as Lemon is suing Musk and X for “fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of Lemon’s name and likeness, and breach of express contract.” The lawsuit was filed in Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, with Lemon seeking “unspecified monetary damages.”
In a statement to the outlet, Lemon’s attorney, Carney Shegerian, accused the social media platform’s executives of using the media personality’s name for advertising, then disparaging him after they ended the arrangement.
“This case is straightforward. X executives used Don to prop up their advertising sales pitch, then canceled their partnership and dragged Don’s name through the mud,” Shegerian said. “You don’t have to be a genius to see the fraud, negligence, and reputational damage here. Don is an accomplished and hard-hitting journalist who’s committed to defending his good name and holding X’s executives accountable. We look forward to our day in court.”
The much-talked about interview featured the reporter questioning the billionaire about his drug use, his political views, and hate speech on X. Following their sit-down discussion, Musk used X to criticize Lemon’s journalistic integrity, writing, “[Don’s] approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media,’ which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying. And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity.”
When the cancellation was announced back in March, X released a statement that said, “‘The Don Lemon Show’ is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities. However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.”