Black Journalist Highlight: Don Lemon

Don Lemon, 48, is a well-known African-American journalist. Lemon anchors CNN Tonight during weekday prime time and serves as a correspondent. He is also an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College, where he earned his degree in broadcast journalism.

In 2009, Ebony named Lemon as one of the "Ebony Power 150: The most influential Blacks in America." He has won multiple Emmy Awards for his reporting. Although he has received many awards, Lemon has been under a lot of fire in the past year. He received a lot of criticism during his coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and events in Ferguson, Missouri, in November. He is featured in the Columbia Journalism Review’s article, “The worst journalism of 2014.” During his live coverage of Ferguson on Anderson Cooper’s AC 360¸ he mentioned “the smell of marijuana in the air.” Perhaps the most criticism he received occurred during an interview with Joan Tarshis, a woman who accused Bill Cosby of raping her when she was 19 years old. He told her, “There are ways not to give oral sex if you didn’t want to.” Lemon was heavily criticized after this interview. People wrote articles and reacted on social media about how Lemon might as well have asked the woman “if she tried not to get raped.” Lemon eventually issued an apology on-air. Lemon receives criticism from African-Americans the most, as they think he is a poor representation.