‘What?’: Don Lemon Tells Colbert That CNN Was Never ‘Liberal’

Don Lemon is convinced CNN was never “liberal.” “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert mentioned Chris Licht, CNN’s new boss, during an interview with Lemon Monday evening. He asked Lemon, “Word on the street is that you…

Savannah RychcikNov 29, 20223 min read

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The argument went on, “Look, I don’t think that a conversation on television should be any different than a conversation in person. Listen, I have confrontational conversations with people I love and I have unconformable conversations with people I love and I think it’s necessary.”

Lemon declared it is also “necessary to do that on television, on CNN, but you can do that without being vitriolic. I think not being vitriolic is maybe a better way of putting it, but you can do that and not have vitriol. As people say, you can disagree without being disagreeable. And so I think that’s what our mission is.”

Licht was namedCNN’s new boss in April.

Last week, he pushed back against criticism of his new approach to the network’s strategy.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about my vision is that I want to be vanilla, that I want to be centrist. That is bulls—,” Licht said. “You have to be compelling. You have to have edge.”

Licht argued, “In many cases you take a side. Sometimes you just point out uncomfortable questions. But either way you don’t see it through a lens of left or right.”

On Monday, it was reported the network had announced new roles for reporters covering the White House.