Don Lemon: Elon Musk cancels contract with ex-CNN star after uncomfortable interview | Technology

“Our first guest. “Elon Musk like you’ve never seen him.” With these words, journalist Don Lemon announced his new project this Tuesday. The star presenter, who was fired by the CNN network last year, uploaded images to the social network showing him face-to-face with the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Lemon assures that the interview did not please the technology magnate, who, according to the journalist’s own version, canceled the contract to broadcast his program on the social network, The Don Lemon Show. The interview will air in full on March 18.

“Elon Musk is very upset with me,” Lemon said in a video message to his followers on Instagram. The journalist assures that the reason for the anger is the conversation between the two. “He informed me of his decision hours after the interview I conducted with him on Friday,” he said in a statement. In it, the host claims that Musk imposed no restrictions and that the conversation was respectful. It covered a range of topics “from SpaceX to the presidential election”. “It was a good conversation, although he clearly thinks differently,” he added. Some media analysts in the country, who have seen some of the footage, described the exchange as “witness to a first date gone bad”.

In January, Musk opened the doors of X to Lemon, who had been one of the main stars of the American network for 17 years. “He publicly invited me to join the network with a program, he told me that I would have his full support and that his public sphere belonged to everyone,” Lemon says. “His commitment to this global public square, where any question can be asked and all ideas can be shared, does not include people like me asking him questions,” the journalist noted. The controversial figure also invited another journalism star fired in 2023 to his platform, the controversial Tucker Carlson, an icon of the American right when he was at Fox News. Carlson has used X to broadcast his interviews with Vladimir Putin or Viktor Orbán.

Musk has criticized Lemon’s role. “Their methods are basically the same as CNN, but on social media. And it doesn’t work,” Magnett, who has described himself as a defender of freedom of expression, said on the social network. It was this that interested the journalist to interview him for the first time. The program will air half-hour conversations with various public figures. The Don Lemon Show It can be seen on YouTube after X. Lemmon canceled the contract, however, he has confirmed that he will continue and upload talks on the platform, which was acquired by the businessman in October 2022.

The official account of the social network stated that it can be viewed without censorship. “Like any company, we reserve the right to make decisions about our partnership and, after careful consideration, X has decided not to enter into a business relationship with the program,” the company said in a statement. Cara Swisher, one of the most reliable technology journalists in the United States, confirms that Lemon and Musk’s contract was for several million dollars.

However, the announcement will bring new legal problems for Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men. A spokesman for the journalist has threatened legal action as the parties reach an agreement. “Don hopes to be compensated for this. If we have to go to court for it, we will,” said the journalist’s spokesperson.

The annulment of the contract between Musk and Lemon put the journalist at odds with what had been his home for more than a decade. Don Lemon will visit the CNN set this afternoon to reveal some quotes from his show with host Erin Burnett. “I trusted Elon and his team that they were, for the first time, interested in working directly with new and diverse voices,” Lemon, who was left without a platform, said Wednesday.

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