This is CNN: The 'Objective' Stylings of Don Lemon

Nice juxtaposition by John of the Verum-Serum blog, which catches the Most Busted Name in News in action yet again. I had meant to link to Don Lemon’s earlier badgering interview with Rand Paul over the weekend, but it came in during the midst of my mini-vacation in Vegas this weekend. Lemon clearly wanted to get Paul off his game and generate some sort of heated soundbite, which CNN would then play in a continuous loop, as a reminder of how craaaaaazy those Tea Partiers are. When Paul didn’t take the bait, a clearly flustered Lemon ended the interview by blurting out, “You guys get back to work, because the American people clearly, we want something done, the people who sent you there.” (That line is cut from the YouTube clip that Verum-Serum links to, but it’s there in the original Mediaite clip.

I think it’s exceedingly safe to say that we can exclude CNN from the list of “the people who sent you there,” if that “you” refers to any Tea Party-backed candidate.

But the real contrast is found by way of Lemon’s post-budget battle interview with far left Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). As John at Verum Serum notes:

Quite a contrast isn’t it? When interviewing Sen. Paul, Don Lemon spoke for Democrats and for the “frustrated” American people about the need to compromise. When interviewing Rep. Grijalva, he seemed to be speaking for frustrated Democrats who want the President to fight harder and compromise less.

The framing of the entire Rand Paul interview is why won’t you intransigent Tea Partiers compromise now that you’ve made your point. On the other hand, the interview with Rep. Grijalva is about not giving in so easily.

It’s impossible to avoid the conclusion that Don Lemon has a horse in this race or, more precisely, a jackass.

While the former is undoubtedly true, the latter conclusion also squares rather nicely with Jon Stewart’s earlier defenestration of Lemon’s on-air excesses: