One of CNNs most polarizing former anchors has now admitted that the networks long-running feud with President Donald Trump was as much about ratings as it was about journalism.
According to Western Journal, ex-CNN host Don Lemon, who has been embroiled in multiple controversies in recent years, made the revelation during an appearance on the What Now? podcast hosted by former Daily Show frontman Trevor Noah. The two men, both firmly on the left, wandered through a range of topics, but their discussion turned particularly revealing when they began dissecting CNNs coverage of President Trump.
Did you guys at CNN ever know that [Trump] was, like, playing you guys like puppets? Noah asked Lemon. Did you ever figure it out at some point?
Oh, yeah, Lemon replied, conceding what many conservatives have argued for years: that the networks outrage machine was, in practice, a business model. The 60-year-old Lemon continued: So, I think, honestly, they maybe knew somewhere in the beginning, but it was good for business. Do you remember Les Moonves? He goes, you know, Trump is bad for the country, but hes good for business.'
Moonves, the former chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation who resigned in 2018 amid sexual abuse allegations, became infamous for that candid admission about Trump-era profits. Noah then pointed out that former CNN chief Jeff Zucker had expressed a similar view of the Trump phenomenon.
[Moonves] did say that, Noah said. And Jeff Zucker said, Donald Trump is many things, but one thing Ill tell you is, hes a one-man ratings wrecking ball.'
I tell you, Jeff got hip to it really early, but he never told us what to say, Lemon claimed, attempting to draw a distinction between corporate strategy and editorial marching orders. The only thing that he would tell us is, when we were doing interviews, when he allowed us to do interviews, is just, Let him talk, and fact-check. You can ask him anything. Its all in the way you ask the question.
He added: Or you compliment him before. Youre a marketing genius. Now, this one thing I dont understand, because it didnt quite go over well with your supporters. What happened? And then youre in. That description of a calculated, almost scripted approach to interviewing the sitting president underscores how much of the medias posture was performance designed to keep viewers glued to the screen.
While some may dismiss Lemon as a disgruntled ex-employee, his comments reinforce what many on the right have long suspected: that establishment outlets could not quit Trump because he was simply too profitable. For all the sanctimonious lectures about defending democracy, the coverage was still content, and content meant clicks, ad dollars, and career advancement.
The pattern was visible from the outset of Trumps political rise, when networks saturated their programming with his every move while denouncing him in the same breath. In September 2016, CNBC reported that Trump had effectively received $4.6 billion in free media, a staggering figure that reflected both media obsession and the failure of supposedly neutral outlets to resist the lure of ratings.
Lemon himself was a central player in that era, having joined CNN in 2006 and launched his own prime-time show in 2014, where he became one of the loudest anti-Trump voices on cable news. He ultimately departed the network in 2023 under a cloud of scandal, but his recent candor inadvertently confirms what conservatives have argued all along: the corporate medias hostility toward President Trump was real, yet it was cynically harnessed as a lucrative business strategy that kept their audiences angry, addicted, and endlessly watching.
Login