Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), alleging fraud and breach of contract after their content partnership was abruptly terminated in March.
CBS News Reports According to the lawsuit, Musk and X promised Lemon full creative rights to his content, even if he didn’t like Tesla’s CEO and his executives. The deal, which was supposed to guarantee Lemon $1.5 million in the first year, never materialized, and the former anchor claims he never received a penny.
Lemon’s lawyer, Carney R. Shegerian, said in an email to CBS MoneyWatch that the lawsuit is “straightforward.” He claims that Company X executives used Lemon to bolster their ad sales pitch, but then ended the partnership and damaged Lemon’s reputation. “It doesn’t take a genius to see the fraud, negligence and reputational damage,” Shegerian said, adding that Lemon is committed to defending his reputation and looks forward to seeing it through in court.
The highly publicized content deal fell apart less than five months after it was announced and just days before the first episode was scheduled to air on X in March. Musk criticized Lemon’s approach, saying it was “basically ‘CNN on social media.'”
Lemon released the first episode on social media after the deal was canceled, which features a sometimes tense conversation with Musk. In the interview, the billionaire defended his use of the prescription drug ketamine, claiming it helps relieve “negative chemical mental states.” Musk also complained about Lemon’s questioning style, calling it “unpersuasive.”
The lawsuit alleges that Musk and his representatives, including X CEO Linda Yaccarino, knowingly misrepresented their intentions. Lemon claims the representatives used Musk’s celebrity and expert status to try to salvage X’s reputation after major advertisers pulled from the platform after Musk endorsed posts that were allegedly anti-Semitic.
Lemon said he spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” setting up his own media company to produce content for X.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship.
