Maybe Don Lemon just wanted to be "trending" in this social media and self-important
world we live in. Perhaps, all the attention he received for 'coming out' as a CNN news
anchor faded away all too quickly. There's a chance Lemon just wanted to make his
employer, who is coming off record low-ratings significant again even just for
the 24-hours that big stories receive before getting rinsed out of the news and Twitter
cycle.
Maybe. Perhaps. Who the heck the knows what Lemon was thinking when he did
what he did on live television.
Lemon was interviewing Joan Tarshis, one of the woman on the growing list of those
accusing television legend, Bill Cosby, of sexual assault and rape, when he decided to point
something out.
"You know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to do it," he said.
Thanks, Don. Way to play the armchair victim.
After Tarshis stated that, in hindsight, she wished she would have done what Lemon
was suggesting, he made the point to point out what he was really saying.
"Meaning the using of the teeth, right?"
I'm sure if any parent had a child within earshot of this ridiculous segment of
television, they would've done their best to pounce on them with a pillow to
cover their ears of this horrible piece of 'journalism.'
Lemon continued to prod Tarshis for details.
"I didn't even think of it," Tarshis said.
"Biting," Lemon clarified, adding. "I had to ask."
"No, it didn't cross my mind," she said.
The only person whose mind it crossed was Lemon's and his line of questioning
clearly crossed the line. But civility and class, especially among television people
who kick, scratch, and claw for attention, went out the window a long, long time
ago.
In this day and age of social media, talk radio, and Q-ratings, the old adage, "negative
publicity is better than no publicity at all," certainly applies here.. Lemon and his
insensitive questioning are blowing up Twitter and while not breaking the Internet
like Kardashian's bare booty, Lemon and his face are pictured all over the world
wide web. I'm writing about him, certainly others will be talking about him, as well.
But Lemon didn't stop there. On Wednesday, he apologized and decided to play the
role of the victim to not only gain more attention, but to deflect the avalanche of
criticism he's facing for his stupid questions
"As I am a victim myself, I would never want to suggest that any victim could have
prevented a rape.... "I've never admitted this on television, "he said. "I was a victim
of a pedophile when I was a kid, someone who was much older than me," Lemon said
Lemon is brilliant. He turned everything around and made it about him, not Tarshis.
He achieved his goal of getting attention for himself ten-fold. Now he is the gay
anchor who got assaulted by a pedophile. I'm sure there will be more stories about
this complete with tears and tissue, in the days to come.
I'm not being insensitive. I'm sure he has lived through the torture, but that doesn't
mean he had to make Joan Tarshis re-live hers, thanks to stupid and insensitive
questions just to gain more attention for himself.
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