CNN's Don Lemon Compares Libya 'Atrocities' With LGBT Discrimination

By Matt Hadro | August 30, 2011 | 11:00

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In a Thursday NPR interview, CNN's openly-gay anchor Don Lemon lumped discrimination against gays and lesbians in with atrocities committed in Libya.

When asked why audiences should be interested in gay and lesbian issues, Lemon answered that "people are glued to what's happening in Libya, because it affects us. Any atrocity that's committed against one person affects us all and we are becoming more of one society, of a global society. "

Lemon was attending a four-day event by the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association, and was a keynote speaker there along with NBC's Ann Curry. He said of his attendance, "I think it's important for me to have a presence there and for me to actually walk in and own it and for all those journalists who are there, to say to them, like, not only that it's okay, but thank you for your support."

Lemon, who back in May revealed that he is gay, defended his objectivity as a reporter in covering LGBT stories.

"I think people question whether I should cover those issues and whether or not I'm going to be biased about those issues, and I think not," Lemon said, adding that his orientation "gives me a knowledge about those issues that many people don't have."

As NewsBusters has reported, Lemon has been ardently pro-gay in his coverage of gay and lesbian issues.

Lemon also conveyed that he would like to see more diversity in newsrooms everywhere. "I am proud of the diversity at my particular company," he said of CNN. "I think in the industry overall we could have more diversity."

For the full transcript of the NPR segment, click here.

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Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Matt Hadro on Twitter.

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Comments

Ground Control to Major Don . . .

Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:53pm.

Put your space helmet back on and take a few deep breaths. Americans are not tuned into atrocities in Libya precisely because they do not affect us. It was true before the civil war erupted, and it's true now -- at least until it becomes apparent that the new regime is an anti-American Islamic dictatorship.

For all of Lemon's grandiose reference to global-ocity, most atrocities have no effect on the rest of the world, let alone us. He sounds like a naive kid in his high school's Model UN.

Lemon also conveyed that he would like to see more diversity in newsrooms everywhere. "I am proud of the diversity at my particular company,"

By which he means that he is happy that CNN hasn't fired him or will they now that he has come out of the closet, for fear of getting sued for discrimination. Unfortunately, for all his praise of diversity, there's no intellectual diversity in his company. They all sound the same, and shallow at that.

By 'diversity' Lemon actually

Submitted by Soldat44 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 1:00pm.

By 'diversity' Lemon actually means 'target rich environment'.

'One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church'

The homosexual agenda....

Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:08am.

is becoming sooooo tiresome. (Yawn)

It is a bit over the top.

Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:16am.

Sorry if it bores you

Submitted by buttercup815 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:26am.

So just stand aside and let them get married already. It's not not like it's going hurt YOU is it?

It's boring AND bothersome

Submitted by jon_torlin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:32am.

Not until they start making demands that have no basis in reality like demanding more rights and other stupid things that make no sense.

-Jon

??? Well, since you mentioned it.

Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:33am.

Homosexuals want this marriage issue for publicity etc., they don't necessarily want to be married.

Look all most of us want, Buttercup, is for homosexuals to get out of our faces. They can go do whatever they want to do, just do it in private, stop recruiting the very young and go enjoy their diseases and short life span.

It's not that simple

Submitted by buttercup815 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:57am.

There are legal issues involved. The IRS treats married couples different than singles. And hospitals have different policies about "family"
So if you want them to get out of your face..then get out of their face.

I am not in their face, Buttercup.

Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:05pm.

There are legal contracts, guardianships , etc. that will solve the problems you mention.

I keep my sex life private, I wish the homos would keep theirs private too.

So you support gay marriage

Submitted by buttercup815 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:17pm.

As long as you are not invited to the wedding..that could be arranged.

Are you Lost in Space?

Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:20pm.

No, I do not support gay, queer or homo marriage.

~In Massachusetts,

Submitted by Wrathful Brunette on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:25pm.

where "gay marriage" has been legal for years, approximately 15% of the gay population actually gets "married". More than half of those are lesbians, so about 5-6% of the gay men who have the option of getting married take advantage of it.

But sure, it's all about having those vital visitation rights and tax breaks.

Obama's WTF 2012 campaign slogan: "A dog in every pot"

There is no 'marriage'.

Submitted by Soldat44 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:54pm.

There is no 'marriage'. Period!

Marriage is a sacrament from God and God is not certifying your same-sex homosexual 'marriage' no matter what the good 'reverend' says.

There is no 'marriage'.

'One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church'

Fine!

Submitted by DumbCanuck on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:20pm.

Then lobby the IRS and hospitals to change their policies.

Everybody will then be happy, right? Nope! To quote the now deceased Jack Layton (Canada's opposition leader): "Equal but different is not equal!" (Jack is oh-so-smart, and enlightened, and inclusive...... sheesh!)

Leave marriage alone! Redefining marriage (a cornerstone in the family unit and the basis for our society for thousands of years) is overkill, and there will be a price to pay for this social re-engineering, and EVERYBODY will be affected by this.

"There... Are... Four... Lights!"

DumbCanuck:

Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:01pm.

I'm guessing you are no fan of the NDP? :o)

Canadian politics ought to get real interesting now, admittedly, due to Layton's death.

"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)

And yet, the gays make sure that photogs are present.

Submitted by UpNorth on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:47pm.

If it was all about the "legal issues", why is it necessary to make sure the local alphabet network affiliate is present? Why the photo on the front page of the NYT? Why the incessant drumbeat from the media that this is the wave of the future?

If you insist that it isn't about publicity, only about "legal issues", you beclown yourself.

To re-elect Obama would be like the Titanic backing up and hitting the iceberg again.

This is another great liberal issue...

Submitted by Order270 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:37am.

...because the disconnect of its effects are too great to be scientifically researched until it's too late.

No.

Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:28pm.

I won't "stand aside" and let a group of sexual deviates further drive what's left of our culture to ruin.

Thanks!

Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 1:40pm.

Thanks for showing your hatred of religion and the fact you want group rights to trump individual rights at all times.

"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)

LGBLT

Submitted by Makdaknife on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 3:03pm.

Better to use the effort to find a cure.

A cure for a large bacon

Submitted by Beukeboom on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 3:21pm.

A cure for a large bacon lettuce & tomato sandwich?

The Cure!

Submitted by Denny Crane on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 7:29pm.

When you have your Large BLT then make sure you have the correct drink!

Be on the lookout for random acts of journalism from the MSM~h/t Rush

We Are The 53%

How much is enough diversity? The percentage of the US

Submitted by Lipton on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:14am.

population that is gay is somewhere around 4%, at least that is what I read. So is he looking for a 50/50 mix or what?

I'd like to thank Hollywood for renewing my interest in reading.

Don and Anderson should fill the gay quota for CNN.

Submitted by Red Jeep on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:17am.

If he thinks we're becoming

Submitted by Ed Gregory on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:17am.

If he thinks we're becoming "more of one society, a global society," he should try being openly gay in Libya and see how it works out. By the way, there should be no hyphen in the term "openly gay." Sorry, but I'm an editor, and it's hard to let those things go.

Aside from that, he's nuts if he thinks people care a whole lot about what's happening over there, let alone are "glued" to it. These TV-types who think people hang on their every word really should get out more.

First of all...

Submitted by Order270 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:28am.

...what difference does the sexual orientation of the reporter have to do with a story. Truly objective reporting is equivalent to the fly on a wall. Once the reporter injects himself in any way into a story, an agenda is the driving force.

But it sometimes can be fun!

Submitted by mandrake on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:39am.

Have you ever read the work of Hunter S. Thompson? Never meant to be taken seriously, but a lot of fun to read.

Hunter S. Thompson was a true talent and a game changer.

Submitted by Order270 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:53am.

Almost all of these guys today are wannabes and hacks. Mr. Thompson took the reader into a new realm of reporting in that the story of getting the story was raised to a level of interest and importance that exceeded the story itself. And yet, even through all his excesses, he was still able to deliver the feel of the effect of a "fly on the wall".

Or a fly on the floor . . .

Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 4:52pm.

. . . depending on what substances one consumes. At a certain point, not even the fly can cling to the wall.

back in the early 90s

Submitted by misterbee241 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 11:43am.

there was a very funny show on TV called In Living Color. I'm sure many of you remember it. I loved it. It took shots at everybody. In one skit Jim Carrey plays a guy who wants to be gay but is not. Everywhere he goes, he announces he's "out". In one skit, he's standing in line in a fast food joint telling everybody, "dont mind me, I'm just the gay guy here." People ignored him. The more he announced his "gayness" the more he was ignored. THAT is how I see Don Lemon. Nobody cares who you shack up with Don, so get over it.

If you're not getting flak, you're not over the target.

Dead on.

Submitted by HockeyKid on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 2:27pm.

The motto of the gay "rights" movement is "Look At Me!!!!"

"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me

Here you go MisterB!

Submitted by Denny Crane on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:48pm.

Is this line for heterosexuals?

Be on the lookout for random acts of journalism from the MSM~h/t Rush

We Are The 53%

Dancing With The Stars Will Fix That

Submitted by Blue Collar Todd on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:02pm.

Guess who will be on the next "Dancing With The Stars"? One transsexual "man" named Chaz Bono.

http://www.bluecollarphilosophy.com/2011/08/transsexual-chaz-bono-to-be-...

Absurd

What's next?

Submitted by jon_torlin on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:29pm.

Who's next, the so-called pregnant "man?"

Sooner or later they'll add chimps and orangutans followed by a shetland pony and a giraffe?

Gotta be a line to cross there somewhere.

-Jon

There is already a movement....

Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:30pm.

to decriminalize pedophilia.

It's been so long....

Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:29pm.

...since I've tuned to the All Barack Channel, I can't even remember the number.

Lemon just LOVES the non

Submitted by Beukeboom on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:04pm.

Lemon just LOVES the non sequitur.

you give this "guy" an inch...

Submitted by Rackie on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:37pm.

and he'll take a foot and stick it in his mouth. On the upside, it's fun to watch.

I think the Lemon Squeezer

Submitted by killa37 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:56pm.

I think the Lemon Squeezer would REALLY find out the true meaning of 'atrocities' if he took his schtick and his agenda to Libya, or any other mooooooooooooooooooslem country.

he could start by...

Submitted by Rackie on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 8:58pm.

passing out whoopie cushions 'cause everybody loves fart jokes. Right?

In his "open, global society" there are...

Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:59pm.

...radical Muslims who will put openly gay citizens, Christians, converted Muslims and faithful of other religions to death. How inclusive and diversified is that part of your rainbows and unicorns, Don?

He sits there and compares a radical Islamic country that would have "infidels" put to death and he thinks the US gay population is treated in the same way? And then he complains on other shows that we are intolerant of a religion that would do so eagerly? Get the disconnection here, Don? If your moral relativism is on such fire, move to Egypt and Libya and see what happens when you openly say you are gay. You will not have the fawning audience that you do now. They will be fawning on the imam who orders brutal treatment of you.

CNN needs to give him a small raise so he can afford to buy a clue.

Similar commentary from a different time

Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:05pm.

dr, comments like these are what chased me from Leftism in my teenage years. Late in my high school years, I began listening to all sorts of radio programming, from Limbaugh to NPR. I remember hearing some comment on NPR by some woman whose name escapes me who whined that she thought "Women had more freedom in Riyadh than in the United States." I had to be 18 at the time. I was blown away by the sheer stupidity of that comment.

Mr. Lemon's comments are pretty much an echo of that time for me. He, like so many others on the Left, are completely clueless about what oppression is truly like, and this is compounded by their being, more often than not, spoiled brats.

"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)

Yup Doc

Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:46pm.

To the gays, tolerance only means complete and total admiration of the homosexual lifestyle, and recognition that it is at least equal, and possibly superior to, heterosexuality.

The world is on it's head, I tell ya.

"I don't like repeat offenders, I like dead offenders". - Ted Nugent

Lemon & Maddow

Submitted by Patrick_in_AZ on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 2:16pm.

Is it just me? Lemon looks like Maddow in drag (or perhaps it is the other way around)

Nobody cares what homos think,

Submitted by johnsonl on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 2:22pm.

except other homos.
Just because Richard Maddow shares his glasses with LemonAids, doesn't make him appear to be any smarter.

Lybial Mutilation?

Submitted by Cool Arrow on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 3:51pm.

I haven't heard much about it, but I hope Mr/s Lemon recuperates from it.

Homos Are So Hip and Edgy...

Submitted by Motormouth KOS on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:18pm.

I am a live and let live person, so I fully support Donni LemonDrop's right to be any one of his LGBT choices.

But I am so tired of having to listen to this liberal drumbeat that suggests it is more "enlightened" to be pro-gay. Isn't the actual position of "enlightenment" to be open to all, tolerant of all, and not to be "pro" one side or the other?

Does anybody think that Donni LemonDrop is as "pro-heterosexuality as he is "pro"-gay? I think not. He defends his objectivity, but does so without evidence.

In fact, the only "evidence" he provides is his rather bizarre moral equivalence between the atrocities and plight of the Libyans that is somehow equated with "atrocities and plights" of the gays?

Non-sequitur, thy name is Donni.

The Obamination... A crisis leading to a catastrophe..(please donate to MRC)

Who would have ever thought

Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:41pm.

There would come a time when you had to murder babies and take it up the @ss to be cool.

Sigh.

"I don't like repeat offenders, I like dead offenders". - Ted Nugent

there's only one atrocity...

Submitted by wizardjr on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 5:31pm.

it's what the liberals and 'journalists' have done to America's "news" outlets. The LSM - American Pravda.

Hey lemmon ... keep your ...

Submitted by jmigyanka@msn.com on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 6:26pm.

...gay agenda to yourself. Don't push the deviant life style of a meager 2% of your kind onto the real AMERICAN people. Don't ask Don't tell.

JMigyanka

And the gay and lesbian

Submitted by buddyc on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:30pm.

And the gay and lesbian community is our Taliban, trying to destroy in organizations, groups, ideas that are the cement of our society in order:

1. morality
2. boy scouts
3. catholic church
4. marriage
5. mormons
6. the bible
7. laws against pedophile
8. mother nature

Diversity like you have at

Submitted by buddyc on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 10:34pm.

Diversity like you have at google, pixar, sony, miramax, paramount, nbc, cbs, abc where chrisitians, hetro sexuals NEED NOT APPLY. Study the gay communities treatment of those involved in proposition 8 for an idea of a diverse tolerant world with homos in control.

LGBLT

Submitted by Makdaknife on Wed, 08/31/2011 - 3:00pm.

In California schools, homo propaganda takes the form of readings attacking the "patriarchy" in which masculinity is demonized and boys are urged to "love" other boys. Needless to say, "friendship" is never mentioned and needs to be killed off by neglect so the homo world view that everything is sexual can prevail. Is this found in other states?