Former CNN journalist Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk and his platform X. The lawsuit claims that the platform exploited Lemon’s likeness to retain and obtain advertisers.
Lemon, who worked for CNN for 17 years before he was fired in 2023, is demanding $35 million in damages and a jury trial.
The lawsuit alleges that Musk’s handling of X (formerly Twitter) forced major companies to suspend and decrease their advertising on the platform.
“Following Musk purchasing X (at the time known as Twitter), Musk fired top executives, laid off a significant portion of staff, and reinstated banned accounts,” the lawsuit alleges.
The inability to retain advertisements, which, according to Reuters, made up 70- 75% of X’s total revenue in 2023, was a problem for the platform.
Therefore, the lawsuit alleges that the “defendants sought to affiliate with reputable figures whose name, likeness and reputation they could use to piggyback off of to retain advertisers,” and Lemon was supposedly a “top prospect.”
Following Lemon’s termination at CNN, lawyers said that Musk saw an opportunity to forge an exclusive partnership with the ex-CNN star. The lawsuit states that this deal came at a time when “Lemon was vulnerable.”
Despite Lemon’s reservations regarding the relationship, Musk and those at X induced Lemon with “false promises and representations about what would be expected of them and how much Lemon would be compensated to get him to agree.”
The lawsuit alleges that Musk agreed to pay Lemon $1.5 million, along with a cut of the advertising revenue generated from Lemon’s content, to post a select number of videos on X for 24 hours before distributing them to other platforms.
The deal between Lemon and Musk wasn’t a secret, as the official X business account posted a welcoming message tagging Lemon in January 2024.
Just two months later, X Business posted saying that the platform decided against going into a commercial partnership with The Don Lemon Show.
X is a platform that champions free speech, and we’re proud to provide an open environment for diverse voices and perspectives. The Don Lemon Show is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work…
undefined Business (@XBusiness) March 13, 2024
Lemon responded to Musk’s X post regarding free speech just after the announcement that X wouldn’t be joining forces with Lemon.
The former CNN journalist said, “You canceled my contract after our interview. I don’t think you believe in free speech,” The National Desk reported.
You canceled my contract after our interview. I don’t think you believe in free speech. https://t.co/rD6BJIzStZ
undefined Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 13, 2024
The BBC reported that the deal fell apart after The Don Lemon Show filmed its first video, an interview with Elon Musk.
After it was announced that the show wouldn’t be going forward, Musk replied to a comment on X saying that Lemon’s approach was just CNN, which is a dying news outlet, the BBC found.
“Instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so it lacked authenticity,” the post reads.
His approach was basically just “CNN, but on social media”, which doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.
undefined Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 13, 2024
And, instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity.
All this said, Lemon/Zucker are…
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