Don Lemon Turns on Friend Jussie Smollett, Ignores Helping Him

CNN anchor Don Lemon turned on his friend Jussie Smollett on Thursday, hours after a court found Smollett guilty on five counts of disorderly conduct for staging a hate crime.

" had to make up too many lies as to why he didn't want to do certain things," Lemon said.

"To cover. Like another lie - and I guess he got caught up in that because he took the stand himself.

"He got angry with the prosecutor as the prosecutor poked holes in his story - -calling the only other witnesses liars.'"

Lemon's critique of Smollett is accurate: Smollett is a liar. Yet, Lemon again noticeably failed to disclose his own role in assisting Smollett while the case was still under investigation.

Earlier this week, Smollett testified that Lemon had tipped him off in 2019 that the police didn't believe his made-up hoax.

Lemon "meddled with police investigation," the Daily Mail concluded.

From Smollett's testimony, we also learned that Lemon texted Smollett "every day" in 2019 to check on his well-being because the case was "personal" to Lemon.

Lemon's role in Smollett's case comes at an inopportune time for CNN. The network just fired another primetime host, Chris Cuomo, for journalistic malpractice last week.

Still, I wouldn't expect CNN or Lemon to address this elephant in the room. CNN responded to Chris Cuomo only after its allies in the press made it a story. From the Washington Post to the New York Times, media pundits across the industry demanded CNN react to Cuomo assisting his brother.

Meanwhile, the outrage toward Lemon for tipping off Smollett is comparably mild. Why is that? Is Lemon so sacred that no one dares to challenge him for his behavior? CNN is already facing questions, even internally, about its reputation for journalism, and this week, Lemon only furthered those doubts.