Trump gives Don Lemon what he craves

In covering the arrest of its former anchor, Don Lemon, CNN anchors and experts on Friday were outraged by the apparent violation of the First Amendment.

Based on reporting from NBC News and CBS News, it is obvious that the Trump Administration could not get an indictment from a judge, so it retreated to get an indictment from a Grand Jury, where the evidentiary bar is lower.

Lemon and three other journalists were arrested “in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an X post.

Lemon, now an independent journalist who hosts his own show on a YouTube channel, was taken into custody in Los Angeles where he had assigned himself to cover the Grammys. 

He was charged with conspiracy to deprive others of their civil rights [attending church], which is a denial of their First Amendment rights, according to a source.

Lemon’s attorney Abbe Lowell called the arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment,” and accused the feds of wasting time focusing on journalists rather than investigating who killed two Minnesota protestors.

For the record, attacking journalists is not “unprecedented.” 

From Peter Zenger to Barack Obama (who is not mentioned in an otherwise complete Wikipedia account) it is obvious that journalists here and abroad are under constant attack. And here, it is wrong. 

The Founding Fathers recognized the importance of a free press as a check on authority. The press is not, as Donald J. Trump believes, an enemy of the state. It is the enemy of a corrupt state.

Lemon is a journalist, but he is also a commentator, a host, and as such he is not bound by the news reporter’s shackles of objective reporting. And once he rose to that role, he was rarely objective.

CNN’s Friday coverage included clips of Lemon inside the church telling his audience, and others, “I am a journalist. . . We’re not part of the activists.”

In his heart, he sure is. There’s no question whose side Lemon is on. I assure you other independent journalists are broadcasting opposing opinions.

There’s also no question that once he rose to CNN from reporter status at NBC-10 (where I had a slight relationship with him, us both being Brooklyn College alumni), he was a hot dog, a hot personality in a cool medium.

That’s why CNN gave him his own show, “Don Lemon Tonight,” which he hosted from 2014-2022.

Because of controversy that swirled around him, he was demoted to the CNN morning show, which he did not like nor want, and he later was fired over remarks he made that were considered misogyny.

So he can be a jerk.

But the First Amendment embraces even narcissistic jerks. 

It protects those who sympathize with the Left and the Right. Its predicate is the more voices the better.

Aside from the legal issue, the action by Trump’s attorney general is just terrible optics.

It looks like the most powerful man in the world is targeting a pipsqueak on YouTube.

Trump is turning a critic into a martyr.