Phelim McAleer: Crowds might be cheering Don Lemon at Grammys but, ultimately, he’s a victim of his own hubris
My hometown of Los Angeles ground to a halt over the weekend for the Grammy Music Awards where various musical miscreants give each other prizes for being daring, brave, and of course anti-Trump.
But few red carpet arrivals sparked as much buzz as journalist Don Lemon. And Lemon hadn't released a chart-topping album; instead, he was being cheered for his recent brush with the law.
Fresh from federal custody, the former CNN anchor was hailed as a hero by the musical elite. However, Lemon is in serious trouble, potentially facing years in prison.
As I watched him nervously soak up the applause, I couldn't help thinking: if only he'd worked with Irish News photographer Brendan Murphy, he wouldn't be contemplating jail time.
But first, let's look at why Lemon is in trouble.
Last month, he joined anti-ICE activists who stormed the Cities Church in Minnesota, disrupting a Sunday service. The protestors targeted the church because they said a pastor doubles as an immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) official. ICE is the organisation currently rounding up illegal immigrants.
Lemon, filming the chaos and questioning the congregants, insists he was there as an independent journalist. Prosecutors claim he conspired with the group to trespass and violate federal civil rights laws by interfering with the worshippers’ rights to religious freedom.
But what he did inside is almost irrelevant to the case. As Brendan Murphy, who died late last year, could have told him, Lemon should never have entered the church in the first place. I know because Murphy stopped me making a similar mistake over 30 years ago. As a rookie reporter during the Troubles, Murphy, a veteran photographer, was stuck with me and sent to cover a sit-in at a Housing Executive office in west Belfast.
Protestors, led by a "community organisation" that was really Sinn Féin in disguise, demanded more housing. At the entrance, a very excited Sinn Féiner insisted we photograph the crowd inside.
I moved forward, eager for the story and wary of annoying an excited Sinn Féiner. But Murphy ordered me back: "We can't go in without permission of the owners,” he said.
He explained this to the organiser, and a tense disagreement ensued. Murphy stood his ground, and the protestors eventually came outside for the photos. And so I didn't trespass or disrupt workers and customers. But Don Lemon did and now faces serious jail time.
Lemon's case drips with irony. His prosecution was inspired by the Biden administration weaponising a little-used law to punish anti-abortion protestors. After the 2022 blockade of a Washington DC abortion clinic, five pro-life activists got lengthy sentences for non-violent sit-ins and prayers. These were political prosecutions, inflating misdemeanours into felonies to appease pro-abortion activists. Don Lemon never objected to this abuse of a law which had been used sparingly before then.
And so enter Donald Trump, re-elected in 2024, and the laws once hammering conservatives were now repurposed against left-leaning agitators. There's literally a new sheriff in town – and Lemon has discovered this the hard way.
But Lemon's previous gilded existence is also as much to blame for his downfall. Journalistic rigour isn't his forte. Like many telegenic figures, Lemon has glided on charm for years. His good looks opened doors, but as a black, gay man in the American media, he hit the diversity trifecta. Networks, desperate for progressive credentials, elevated him beyond his intelligence.
At CNN, Lemon thrived in an echo chamber. His shows were affirmation sessions, not journalism, with guests unchallenged and inanities unchecked. Real reporting – going into the field, digging up facts and confronting contradictions – never happened.
Then as TV viewership of leftist stations plummeted post-Trump's re-election, CNN cut costs.
Lemon, pretty but predictably leftist, was expendable. Axed in 2023, no one hired him. Desperate, he launched ‘The Don Lemon Show’, posing as a fearless independent journalist. This delusion culminated in the church invasion.
In CNN's echo chamber and his subsequent independent career, Lemon has had no staffers like Brendan Murphy to shout "stop". So he barrelled on – right into a jail cell.
Murphy could have told him this wasn't journalism, but activism and trespassing – and was most definitely against the law. After his arrest, Lemon quoted the Bible and cast himself as a persecuted truth-teller. But he's no martyr. He's a victim of his own hubris, and of a system that rewarded identity over intellect.
l Phelim McAleer is a Co Tyrone born journalist/producer now living in Los Angeles