Media top headlines June 4
Mike Pompeo alleging that the NIH tried to suppress a State Department COVID-19 probe, Fauci telling Americans to not be so ‘accusatory with China, and a Yahoo News reporter asking Jen Psaki about a possible White House cat round out today’s top media headlines.
CNN anchor Don Lemon cannot quit Donald Trump even after he urged the rest of the media to do so.
Lemon raised eyebrows on Thursday during his appearance on CNN’s “New Day” when he pleaded to his journalism colleagues to lay off covering the former president a bit.
“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,” Lemon said. “He’s the man behind the curtain, and he really 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.”
CNN’S DON LEMON ADVISES MEDIA TO LEAVE TRUMP ALONE, WHILE CNN CONTINUES TO CLOSELY FOCUS ON HIM
Lemon touted Trump’s lack of influence between being de-platformed by social media giants and his recent scrapping of his own blog.
“The former President of the United States, think about this, randomly shows up at people’s weddings at his estate down at Mar-a-Lago because that is the only outlet that he has to spread his misinformation,” Lemon exclaimed. “Let him have it. Leave him alone.”
Hours later, however, the “Don Lemon Tonight” host did not leave him alone, lasting just 12 minutes before slamming the “disgraced” former president.
“A well-placed source telling CNN that Trump has been listening to right-wingers like the My Pillow guy, asking advisers if he could somehow get back in the White House this year, going on, he continues to hold on to hope that he would return to power,” Lemon reported before trashing former Vice President Mike Pence during his opening monologue. “So Trump’s sitting at Mar-a-Lago droning on about whether he’s gonna- who cares?!? Who cares?!?”
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Lemon continues to lose viewers even after rebranding his show following a publicity stunt that sparked false speculation that he was leaving CNN.
The first week of “Don Lemon Tonight” averaged a measly 816,000 viewers in his 10 pm ET timeslot from May 17-21, which is an 11% decrease from Lemon’s final week of “CNN Tonight,” which averaged 898,000 viewers from May 10-14, according to Nielsen data.