Remind me never to ask Don Lemon for damage control tips.
The CNN host on Tuesday “apologized” for hosting a segment that mocked Trump supporters as illiterate rubes. However, in offering the supposed apology, Lemon revealed he believes his viewers are every bit as stupid as the people his show ridiculed.
“This is personally important to me to address this. OK? Anyone, ask anyone who knows me. They’ll tell you. I don’t believe in belittling people,” Lemon insisted on Tuesday. “Belittling anyone for who they are, for what they believe, or where they’re from.”
He added, “One of my guests said something that made me laugh. And, while in the moment, I found the joke humorous, and I didn’t catch everything that was said. Just to make this perfectly clear, I was laughing at the joke and not at any group of people.”
First, this is not an apology, even if it is dressed up to look like one. It is excuse-making with a side of throwing-my-guests-under-the-bus added for good measure. Notice that the words “sorry” and “apologize” are conspicuously absent from Lemon’s remarks.
Second, Lemon must think his viewers are idiots. He certainly treats them that way. He asks his audience to believe that he did not hear or understand his own guests on his own show. He asks his audience to believe that the reactions they saw with their own eyes are not what they think they are. He asks his audience to believe that he was not laughing at people, but only at jokes, which were aimed at people. That last one does not even make sense.
This is just insulting.
The least Lemon can do is own up to the fact that he participated joyfully in the mockery of the president’s supporters, but he cannot do even that much, because he is kind of a weasel.
In case you have forgotten what Lemon is even “apologizing” for, allow me to refresh your memory with this nice fun at the expense of Southerners in particular:
By Tuesday, Lemon had disavowed the segment, claiming he did not hear his guests and that he was not laughing at anyone in particular. Sure. This is as believable an explanation as when the network claimed someone stole CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s assistant’s phone from an unlocked gym locker and then used it to tweet that the president is a “tool” and a “pathetic loser” from Cooper’s account.
If CNN wants to go all-in on being a partisan activist network, then fine. Go for it. Just don’t lie about it, like Lemon did Tuesday evening with his weasel attempt at damage control.
