CNN anchor Don Lemon has had a rough year and in this age of everything going viral, all of his mistakes were widely available for all to see. Now, as the icing on the cake, the Columbia Journalism Review has named his work among the worst examples of journalism in 2014.
The respected journal cited Lemon’s countless gaffes during the year, from his bizarre questions about the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in May to his interview with an alleged Bill Cosby victim just last month.
“As one of the most recognizable anchors on CNN, Don Lemon has helped lead the cable network’s coverage of the biggest stories of the year,” the journal’s Dave Uberti wrote. “Live television is exceedingly difficult to produce, of course, but Lemon’s gaffes this year offer a case study in how to choose words wisely — or not.”
Lemon has been criticized by media watchers over the years, with New York Magazine even listing his six worst gaffes of his career. He once asked if Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 could have been sucked into a black hole and later compared prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl to a character on Showtime’s Homeland series.
In November, he was slammed for asking an alleged Bill Cosby rape victim if she could have used her teeth as a “weapon” to prevent oral sex. Then, just days later, while reporting in Ferguson, Missouri, he told viewers, “Obviously there's a smell of marijuana here as well.”
Even before this year, Lemon was well-known for making his opinion known during reporting. As BuzzFeed noted in July 2013, Lemon said he agreed with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that African Americans shouldn’t wear baggy pants or use the n-word.
The Columbia Journalism Review also cited Rolling Stone’s botched UVA rape story as one of the worst moments for journalism in 2014. Columbia University was enlisted to conduct an investigation into the magazine's editorial process to learn how the story got published.