There was great fanfare in January when X announced it had struck a deal to air “The Don Lemon Show” three times a week. The 30-minute premiere featured an interview with Lemon and Elon Musk. However, the former CNN news anchor failed to do his homework before sitting down with the famously testy Tesla CEO, who has a reputation for lashing out in interviews when things become uncomfortable.
In a heated appearance at the New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit in November 2023, Musk angrily hit back at corporations threatening to pull campaign dollars from X amid accusations of antisemitism. “If somebody’s gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? … Go f*** yourself,” Musk declared, refusing to apologize for his contentious comments.
Things became even more volatile during the Lemon interview when Musk became seriously irked by the line of questioning, which included a grilling about his political allegiances, controversial stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion, lackadaisical approach to moderating hate speech on X, unwavering support of the white nationalist far-right great replacement conspiracy theory, and drug use. Proving that nobody paints Musk into a corner, the SpaceX founder abruptly canceled his deal with Lemon once the cameras stopped rolling. “X is a platform that champions free speech, and we’re proud to provide an open environment for diverse voices and perspectives,” a company tweet announced. X insisted it was a champion of free speech but “[reserved] the right to make decisions about our business partnerships.”
