Don Lemon: Media Joke…

It has been such a long time since I had last been forced to write about Don Lemon and his self-inflicted wounds. More than a year at least. I had begun to think our boy Don had turned a corner from having the reputation of being a media joke to someone who at least learned not to make brain dead ebarrassing mistakes on a regular basis.

I was wrong.

Yeah, it was beyond stupid for Lemon to flip the bird at the Correspondents’ Dinner…joke or no joke. There is no upside and a whole lot of downside from taking such action…specifically, reviving that meme that Lemon is a walking Hazard of Live TV. Just when I thought he was free and clear Don Lemon has another Don Lemon moment.

But that incident isn’t the big story. This is the big story…

Lemon’s agent shot and then released a picture of Lemon and Wilmore together with Lemon counting to one for the second time that night.

What…the…hell?

Your agent is supposed to protect you from harm, to guard you, to steer you from potential danger scenarios.

Not pour more gasoline on an already raging fire.

What on earth was Lemon thinking? What on earth was Lemon’s agent thinking? You want to push this incident behind you as quick as possible, not extend its shelf life.

There are no positives to be had from photos of Lemon giving anyone the finger. Only negatives. One was bad enough. Two in one night? Are you insane?

The first finger could be chalked up to “being overly impulsive” to Wilmore’s pretty hard shot at Lemon. I could see that. It’s still childishly stupid that a grown adult and someone who allegedly wants to be considered a serious journalist can’t exercise basic self-discipline. But I could see it just “slipping out”…particularly from Lemon.

But the second incident is a whole other matter. That was deliberate. And nobody stopped to consider what that image would say about Lemon and how it would negatively impact him. Certainly his agent didn’t, that’s for sure.

If Lemon (and presumably his agent who is also Wilmore’s agent) wanted to establish that the first incident was all in fun and there was no animosity involved there were dozens of ways they could have gone about it without having to resort to a second crude gesture.

How about a photo of the two with their arms around each other? That gets the message out and does so without having to remind everyone about Lemon’s lack of self-discipline.

By opting to go with the option with the greatest potential for ridicule, Lemon shows he still hasn’t learned a damn thing from all the previous self-inflicted wounds he landed upon himself and his network. He still doesn’t understand the concept of optics.

As for his agent, if it were me I’d fire him. I want my agent to look out for me, to see the things I may not. Not to make life more difficult for me.