About Don Lemon

Don Lemon anchors CNN Newsroom during weekend prime-time and serves as a correspondent across CNN/U.S. programming. Based in the network’s New York bureau, Lemon joined CNN in September 2006.

A news veteran of Chicago, Lemon reported from Chicago in the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election, including an interview with then-Rep. Rahm Emanuel on the day he accepted the position of Chief of Staff for President-elect Barack Obama. He also interviewed Anne Cooper, the 106-year old voter President-elect Obama highlighted in his election night acceptance speech after he had seen Lemon’s interview with Cooper on CNN.

Lemon has reported and anchored on-the-scene for CNN from many breaking news stories, including the George Zimmerman trial (2013), the Boston marathon bombing (2013), the Philadelphia building collapse (2013), the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012), the Colorado Theater Shooting (2012), the death of Whitney Houston, the Inaugural of the 44th President in Washington, D.C., the death of Michael Jackson (2009), Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana (2008) and the Minneapolis bridge collapse (2007).

Lemon has also anchored the network\'s breaking news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the Arab Spring, the death of Osama Bin Laden and Joplin tornado. Lemon reported for CNN’s documentary Race and Rage: The Beating of Rodney King, which aired 20 years to the day of the beating. He is also known for holding politicians and public officials accountable in his \"No Talking Points\" segment.

Lemon joined CNN after serving as a co-anchor for the 5 p.m. newscast for NBC5 News in Chicago. He joined the station in August 2003 as an anchor and reporter after working in New York as a correspondent for NBC News, The Today Show and NBC Nightly News. In addition to his reporting in New York, Lemon worked as an anchor on Weekend Today and on MSNBC. While at NBC, Lemon covered the explosion of Space Shuttle Columbia, SARS in Canada and numerous other stories of national and global importance.

In addition to NBC5 and NBC News, Lemon has served as a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter for WCAU-TV, an NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, an anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI-TV in St. Louis and an anchor for WBRC-TV in Birmingham. He began his career at WNYW in New York City as a news assistant while still in college.

In 2009, Ebony named him as one of the Ebony Power 150: the most influential Blacks in America. He has won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the capture of the Washington, D.C. snipers. He won an Emmy for a special report on real estate in Chicagoland and various other awards for his reporting on the AIDS epidemic in Africa and Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, he won three more local Emmys for his reporting in Africa and a business feature about Craigslist, an online community.

Lemon serves as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College, teaching and participating in curriculum designed around new media. He earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University.

For IPHONE/IPAD users: I’m conflicted when it comes to this Chris Brown story. Conflicted because he’s a celebrity, and I know it’s easy to make him out to be the poster child for bad behavior, especially for bad behavior among young black men because he’s a young black man. Trust me there are lots of […]

For IPAD/IPOD users: I’m tired. Tired of getting dispatched on breaking news, rolling up to schools in the middle of the day, sometimes in the middle of the night. Tired of getting there and the place is either on lockdown or has been emptied out. Tired of standing in front of the building wondering how […]

For IPAD/IPOD users: The saying “people hear what they want to hear” certainly applies to my commentary last week. Last week I talked about parental responsibility. Inspired by the tragic death of a two-year old boy whose biological father was football star Adrian Peterson, at least for the last two months Peterson knew him. It’s […]

This Adrian Peterson secret love child beating death story has been really bothering me. Bothering me obviously because the boy was just two-years-old and was allegedly beaten to death by his mom’s boyfriend, who was not the child’s father. Bothering me also because the dead boy’s father is Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson, […]

Let’s talk about the truth and some people who are not able to handle the truth. What do you think would happen to you or me if we went and threw barricades at the White House? We’d be thrown in jail. What do you think people would say to us? That we’ve lost our minds? […]

Watch Don Lemon’s interview with the legendary Cicely Tyson. I had the real honor of sitting down and having a conversation with a legend this past weekend and when a legend speaks, you listen. And that legend is Cicely Tyson. She said something to me that really struck me in the gut. She talked to […]

CNN anchor and TJMS commentator Don Lemon sat down with legendary actress Cicely Tyson, who is starring in the Broadway play “The Trip to Bountiful.”

CNN anchor and TJMS commentator Don Lemon sat down with legendary actress Cicely Tyson, who is starring in the Broadway play “The Trip to Bountiful.” The icon talks about acting, her return to the stage, and her Tony award win.

I might sound happy this morning but I’m actually scared to walk outside of my house sometimes. Sometimes I’m scared to log onto social media. I’m nervous to turn on the TV. Because I never know what kind of anger I might encounter. Have you seen the video of the S-U-V driver who ran over […]

I’m so mad this morning, I am so mad because as I’ve been watching lawmakers over the last few weeks debate the issues that led to the shutdown; you know what that is, healthcare. I felt helpless and I felt betrayed to say the least and I’m sure many of you did too. One, because […]

Here we go again.  Some lawmakers are throwing temper tantrums and yet again holding the American people hostage instead of telling them the truth. It’s hard for some politicians to tell their constituents the truth. Especially after not being completely above-board with them for years. It’s easier for them to give talking points, often repeated […]

Let’s talk about guns. Well, first let’s remove the politics and truthfully talk about gun laws, about gun violence.  After the Newtown shooting President Obama commissioned the Center for Disease Control to research gun violence and offer solutions.  And the study was completed this summer and it just might make you rethink your stance, your […]