CNN host Don Lemon had a rare moment of self reflection on New Day, this morning but of course it was marred by the CNN journalist’s pompous disdain for the GOP and Trump supporters.
Lemon was discussing with co-hosts Brianna Keilar and John Berman how the media should cover both President Trump and fringe conspiracy theorists within the GOP such as those who follow QAnon. Having his own Captain Obvious moment, Lemon wondered if CNN spent too much time obsessing over the former president, and election conspiracy theorists within the extremes of the Republican Party:
How much platform do we give that? Because we say it's a lot of people. Yeah, it's a lot of people. It's not the majority of people in this country. It is a number -- I don't even believe it's the majority of people in the Republican Party….It's not a majority of people in this country. I just wonder if we over inflate it, if we give too much of a voice to it because Donald Trump right now is the wizard of Oz. He's the man behind the curtain and doesn't have any power. His power comes from us that we keep promoting him and we keep talking about this. Sometimes we should probably ignore a lot of it because he has no pow -- look. He was deplatformed. Look what happened with disinformation on social media the moment he was deplatformed.
Saying the former president has no influence apart from the liberal media is quite an arrogant take in itself, but Lemon at least recognizes the sway the media has on public opinion. He added about election conspiracy theorists:
“Sometimes we should just go -- and let him be and let him have that majority of a minority that he has and then soon, I think, they will probably wake up and realize there is not going to be a new inauguration in August.”
But since New Day spends every day wailing over the Capitol riot, election conspiracies and GOP infighting as the most important issues of the day, Keilar disagreed. Saying she loved people "who believed this crap," she said that's why it was so important for the network to be the arbiters of truth:
"I will tell you, the initial information about this, that's not what these folks -- they're not getting it from us. Like we're the ones who are knocking it down," she boasted. But Lemon pushed back saying, "I think that you can be informed without being inundated. I think that you can call people out. You can expose them. But then after that, you don't have to continue to talk about it every single day."
Yikes, that would take away at least half of New Day's daily topics! But Lemon agreed with Keilar that the media's role was to be truth-tellers to the "right information" (because the media is a nonpartisan, spin-free source of information, right?):
And so what you have to do is offer them an alternative to the misinformation. And not necessarily just say this is misinformation. You have to point out the right information and the right information doesn't always include and probably doesn't include Donald Trump because he is a fount of misinformation.
Further displaying the disparity between Lemon's message and his own unhealthy disdain for Trump, Lemon went on a petty rant against the "bigot" "liar" "tiny unhappy man:"
So if you're going to give people an alternative, give them the alternative to Trump that doesn't include Trump because Trump is always -- he's always going to be a liar. He's always been a liar. He's always been a bigot. He's always going to be a bigot. So why do we keep saying, ‘oh, my God, I can't believe he's a bigot.’ Of course he is. ‘Oh, my god, I can't believe he's a liar.’ Of course he is. He's a 77-year-old man. He's not all of a sudden going to change and become this magnanimous person. He's a very small, tiny, unhappy man who is living in a delusion, acting like a lounge act going to the former president of the United States. Think about this. Randomly shows up at people's wedding at his estate down in Mar-a-Lago because that is the only outlet that he has to spread his misinformation.
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Read the transcript below:
CNN New Day
6/3/2021
DON LEMON: This is our struggle every single day for at least on my show and I'm sure it is for you. Is how much-- how much platform do we give that? Because we say it's a lot of people. Yeah, it's a lot of people. It's not the majority of people in this country. It is a number -- I don't even believe it's the majority of people in the Republican party. So remember, you have to look at the percentage of the electorate. The percentage of people who are part of the Republican party and the percentage of people who believe in that. It's not a majority of people in this country. I just wonder if we overinflate it, if we give too much of a voice to it because Donald Trump right now is the wizard of Oz. He's the man behind the curtain and doesn't have any power. His power comes from us that we keep promoting him and we keep talking about this. Sometimes we should probably ignore a lot of it because he has no pow -- look. He was deplatformed. Look what happened with disinformation on social media the moment he was deplatformed. And his -- you know, the desk of Donald J. Trump blog. It's gone!
JOHN BERMAN: Because no one was logging in.
LEMON: Sometimes we should just go -- and let him be and let him have that majority of a minority that he has and then soon, I think, they will probably wake up and realize there is not going to be a new inauguration in August. There's no lever in the Constitution that provides for that. They are going to have to live in reality one day, but we cannot. We cannot let minority rule become the rule in this country. People lying about an insurrection and people also not allowing for the voting rights for people suppressing the voting rights, suppressing voting for people in this country. Too many people fought and died. Too many people who look like me fought and died for that. Too many people look like your husband, fought and died for the rights of Americans. We cannot let the P.O.T., not the G.O.P., the Party of Trump.
BRIANNA KEILAR: Totally agree with you on that, but I will say, Don, I mean, I know people -- I love people who believe this crap. You know, and it's very hard to watch. I think that's -- it's hard to watch them believe it.
LEMON: Yeah.
KEILAR: And I think that's part of the reason why I will just respectfully disagree with you a little bit on talking about these things because I will tell you, the initial information about this, that's not what these folks -- they're not getting it from us. Like we're the ones who are knocking it down.
LEMON: Yeah. No, I don't disagree with you with that. I think that you can be informed without being inundated. I think that you can call people out. You can expose them. But then after that, you don't have to continue to talk about it every single day.
Listen, I had a conversation with someone who is very -- who is a very big position with a social -- on a social media platform. And they said, the -- what they have learned just -- what they have learned is that just by saying, well, that is wrong, that's disinformation, that that makes people want to spread it more. And so what you have to do is offer them an alternative to the misinformation.
KEILAR: Exactly.
LEMON: And not necessarily just say this is misinformation. You have to point out the right information and the right information doesn't always include and probably doesn't include Donald Trump because he is a fount of misinformation. So if you're going to give people an alternative, give them the alternative to Trump that doesn't include Trump because Trump is always -- he's always going to be a liar. He's always been a liar. He's always been a bigot. He's always going to be a bigot. So why do we keep saying, ‘oh, my God, I can't believe he's a bigot.’ Of course he is. ‘Oh, my god, I can't believe he's a liar.’ Of course he is.
He's a 77-year-old man. He's not all of a sudden going to change and become this magnanimous person. He's a very small, tiny, unhappy man who is living in a delusion, acting like a lounge act going to the former president of the United States. Think about this. Randomly shows up at people's wedding at his estate down in Mar-a-Lago because that is the only outlet that he has to spread his misinformation. Let him have it. Leave him alone.
