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.
@DonLemonCNN
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For the past few days we have been inundated with mysteries and tragedies in the news.
One is the mysterious disappearance of an airplane.
One of the tragedies is the violent explosion of two residential buildings right here in New York City.
In both instances lives and attitudes changed immediately.
Paul Weeks was on-board Malaysian Airlines flight 370 when it disappeared over the South China Sea.
He was traveling from Australia to Mongolia for a new job. Before he left he told his wife Danica that he was leaving his wedding ring and watch behind with her. And if anything happened to him he said he wanted the ring to go to his first born son Lincoln who is 3. He wanted the watch to go to his second born son Jack who is just 10-months old.
Here’s how she told CNN’s Piers Morgan she responded.
“And I said something to him like don’t be stupid. Just come back and I’ll give it back to you and you can give it to them. So I’ve got it here and I’m praying that you know I can give that back to him. So I can hold onto. There’s no finality to it and we’re not getting any information.”
She said there is no finality to it. She doesn’t know if he’s dead or alive. She fears the worst but hopes for the best.
Angelica Aguilar was fast asleep when she was abruptly awakened by an enormous blast that shook her bed and her entire Harlem apartment building.
She recalled, “My neighbors came banging on my door telling me to get out. I guess they were evacuating the building. And I couldn’t get out. My door was jammed. Everything off my window seal fell and I guess the impact of the explosion jammed the door as well. ‘How loud was it?’ It was extremely loud, I couldn’t even explain it. ”
Luckily Angelica made it out, but at least 7 people maybe more did not.
More than 24 hours after the blast we’re still awaiting word on at least 6 people who are unaccounted for.
And almost a week after a plane disappeared over the South China Sea we’re still awaiting word on the fate of the 239 people on board that plane. We don’t even know where that plane is.
I say all of that to say to everyone who is listening, or reading this commentary; remember when grandma and grandpa used to say, “Don’t go to bed mad,” or “Don’t let the sun rise on your anger.”
What they meant by that is self-explanatory.
If you have a loved one with whom you may be upset, or you may be taking for granted, tell them how much you love and appreciate them. Forget the little acts that you think are so egregious, forget about that.
You may never get another chance. Life can change in an instant.
