He began his journalism career by serving as a reporter and weekend news anchor for WBRC based in Birmingham, Alabama. Also, Don worked for WCAU in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He served as an anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI based in St. Louis, Missouri. Don reported for NBC News’s New York City operations and also worked as a correspondent for both Today and NBC Nightly News.
He served as an anchor on Weekend Today and programs on MSNBC. In 2003, he started working at NBC-owned and operated station WMAQ-TV 5 based in Chicago. There, Don was a reporter and local news co-anchor. While at WMAQ, he won three Emmys for local reporting. Don became part of the CNN network in September 2006.
His work of criticizing the state of cable news and questioning the network publicly at CNN made him become an outspoken journalist. Don voiced strong opinions on how the African-American community can improve their lives. Those opinions caused some controversy. He served as the co-host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve special from New Orleans with Brooke Baldwin from 2014 to 2023. In addition, Don co-anchored “CNN This Morning” along with Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow. CNN This Morning has been on air for almost six months.
In January 2018, in a much-reported broadcast, Don introduced his broadcast with the statement “This is CNN Tonight, I’m Don Lemon. The president of the United States is racist.” His outspoken criticism of former US President Donald Trump’s administration, as well as accusations of racism against Trump, has made Don a target of Trump.
Don’s colleagues at CNN included:
Julian Zelizer – comentator
Coy Wire – anchor
Nick Valencia – correspondent
Eleni Giokos – anchor
Ben Wedeman – correspondent
Jennifer Westhoven – correspondent
Sandra Gonzalez – reporter
Irin Carmon – correspondent
Ryan Lizza – correspondent
