No tears for Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon, who should have known better

With the departures of cable TV stars Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon, surprisingly announced on the same day, we can see how birds of a feather can get clobbered together.

- Clarence Page

Outside of their job descriptions, there’s not a lot that Fox News’ Carlson and CNN’s Lemon share in common. Yet they both demonstrate how the power of being able to speak freely over the airwaves can melt your wings when you soar too close to the sunlight of fame.

Lemon’s case is an easier call, yet no less puzzling.

On Monday, CNN announced Lemon was fired after 17 years at the network. CNN pushed back on the anchor’s claims that he had not been given a chance to respond.

He was offered an opportunity to meet with management, the network said, but instead he released a statement on Twitter. Neither statement gave an explanation for the sudden breakup. Although, it came after Lemon had been mired, in a string of controversies in recent months, including accusations of making offensive on-air comments about women and of mistreating female co-workers off-camera.

Most memorably, Lemon came under fire for comments he had made on-air about presidential candidate Nikki Haley not being “in her prime” at the age of 51. As gaffes go, in my humble view, this was not only stunningly inaccurate, but also stupid to the point of dangling on the edge of career suicide.