THIS IS CNN: Jussie Smollett’s Testimony About Don Lemon Shows What a Dumpster Fire CNN Is.

Jussie Smollett may have just thrown Lemon under the bus during his testimony today. Smollett testified that he’d been in contact with Don Lemon during the early part of the Chicago Police Department’s investigation into the phony attack on him. He testified that one of the reasons he didn’t want to turn over his phone to the police during the investigation was because Don Lemon texted him that the Chicago Police didn’t believe his account of what happened. Lemon has already said that he was in constant contact with Smollett early on in the case and that the story was “personal” to him.

So why is Don Lemon tipping Smollett that the police don’t believe him? Was Lemon trying to pass on information that he knew in his media capacity to help Smollett? That would sound similar in some ways to what Chris Cuomo did. Why are CNN anchors becoming enmeshed with news subjects/subjects of criminal investigations? At least Lemon previously acknowledged to his audience that he had contact with Smollett. But again, if it’s someone he knows and he’s having conversations like that with him, that compromises Lemon’s objectivity, not that he ever cares about that.

Exit question: “Are there any CNN hosts NOT using their sources to secretly help [alleged] criminals cover up their scandals?”

Related: Nicholas Fondacaro of NewsBusters tweets that “At 10-to-midnight [Monday night, Don Lemon and Omar Jimenez] finally discuss the Jussie Smollett trial. But neither ‘journalist’ mentioned how Smollett testified under oath that Lemon tipped him off to police skepticism of his hoax claims. The whole segment lasted 5 minutes and 7 seconds.”