Ex-MSNBC Contributor Claims Don Lemon Banned Her From Appearing on CNN

Goldie Taylor also suggests her former employer dumped her after she lobbied for Ferguson coverage

Former MSNBC contributor and current Daily Beast editor Goldie Taylor alleged on Twitter on Saturday that she is blacklisted at CNN because she disagreed publicly with Don Lemon “about black life.”

The allegation is part of more than 30 tweets detailing Taylor’s difficulties with having her voice heard on cable news, including with her former employers at MSNBC.

“When cable networks tell you they ‘value diversity,’ don’t believe a word of it,” she tweeted.

In her remarks over two tweets about Lemon and CNN, she said: “I am personally banned from a network b/c, ironically enough, I dared disagree w/ a black man publicly abt black life […] I don’t throw rocks and hide my hand. That network is @CNN and the anchor is @donlemon.”

The disagreement over “black life” is likely a reference to a publicized incident in 2013, when Taylor called Lemon a “turn coat mofo” after he made comments supporting Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly’s criticism of “gangsta culture.”

Taylor also suggested that her former employers at MSNBC were first on covering the police shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Mo. because of her insistence, even though producers at the network attempted to ignore her. “It took me hours to get one network to care abt Ferguson, emailed every producer I knew. They never responded. Removed me from thread,” she tweeted. “They were the first to get the story on air, because of what I did that afternoon. Weeks later, my contract was not renewed.”

Taylor’s contract was not renewed in September 2014, after four years at MSNBC. A rep for the network declined comment.

Taylor is an active tweeter who has used her highly visible account for commenting on race relations many times before. In May, her son was handcuffed and threatened for trying to sell his own laptop, which she broadcast through her account. Her actions spurred Internet outrage and led to the police department in question releasing a statement calling the acts “unprofessional.”

Her remarks come on the heels of a wave of race-related violence in America, as cell phone footage of two separate incidents of police shooting and killing black men went viral and then a sniper opened fire on police during a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas, killing five of them.

Taylor joined other black TV journalists, such as Roland Martin of TV One, in criticizing how cable news covered the week’s violence. He was moved to share similar stories. In response to Taylor tweeting that management had cancelled her appearances on cable news shows after seeing her name, Martin said the same thing had happened to him: “This has happened to me at @MSNBC numerous times. I was booked on @seanhannity, ON THE TRAIN TO NY, then cancelled.”

This has happened to me at @MSNBC numerous times. I was booked on @seanhannity, ON THE TRAIN TO NY, then cancelled. https://t.co/UMqDFoMlDc

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) July 9, 2016

Must Read

Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXKCjq2taKaVrMBws86lm6KdXamuurjOq2Scpp5isbC6jKWcpqeeYrq0usGcZGpqYGaFcn2RcHBo

Jenniffer Sheldon

Update: 2024-04-25

ZedDash