Elon Musk Fires Don Lemon While Maintaining He Doesn’t Believe in Censorship

Key Takeaways

• Elon Musk terminated a contract to promote Don Lemon’s new talk show on X.
• The X owner canceled his agreement with Lemon after the interview became heated.
• Musk’s anti-censorship looks less credible after he moved to cancel Lemon’s show.

A new talk show hosted by the former CNN anchor Don Lemon was originally meant to be hosted exclusively on X. But before the first episode had even aired, Elon Musk terminated Lemon’s contract.

The abrupt cancelation occurred just hours after the two men had filmed an interview that was set to be part of the show’s debut episode. For the self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist, Musk’s decision to fire Lemon looks somewhat like an attempt to de-platform the journalist just because he didn’t like the questions he was asking.

What Happened inDon  Lemon Elon Musk Interview?

Unlike other Musk, interviews, like his multiple appearances on the Joe Rogan show, Lemon didn’t shy away from difficult questions.

In the hour-long interview, which was posted to YouTube on Monday, March 31, Lemon grilled Elon about his relationship with Donald Trump, his drug use and his at-times controversial X posts.

While the conversation started out friendly enough, Musk became visibly flustered at times and Lemon would later describe the interview as “tense.”

Perhaps the most heated exchange occurred when Lemon grilled Musk about his opinions on racism and the “woke mind virus.”

Interrogating some of Musk’s most divisive rhetoric, Lemon asked him “do you think society blames everything on racism?”

“It blames a lot of things on it – yeah,” the Tesla CEO responded. “I think we should not make [racism] a constant subject, I think we need to move on,” he added.

Musk on Social Media Censorship

During the interview, Musk discussed allegations that hate speech on X has increased since he took control of the platform.

Pressed on whether he thought X should do more to moderate content, he responded that “moderation is a propaganda word for censorship.”

The statement is classic Musk. But the billionaire’s free speech posturing is somewhat undermined by his decision to walk back on a deal with Don Lemon following their discussion

Simmering Beef Between Lemon and Musk

In a video shared last week, Lemon revealed that Musk had terminated a contract that would have seen the interview promoted on X.

“Apparently, free speech absolutism doesn’t apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me,” the talk show host stated.

In subsequent X posts , Musk asserted that Lemon is “welcome to monetize on this platform, just like everyone else.”

Nonetheless, on Monday, Lemon reported that “the premiere episode of the show is currently not posting on X.” Censorship? or perhaps just a technical glitch.