Whether Don Lemon broke federal law in his role in an attack on a church in Minnesota will be a matter for the jury, but we can already say he deserves the maximum for his crime against journalism.
At issue, both in the criminal case and in the court of journalistic ethics: was the former CNN anchor present at the disruption of the church service in St. Paul to document the event, or did he participate in it? It was very clearly the latter.
In the moments leading up to the brash “protest” at the house of worship that left children in tears, Lemon is seen outside, on a video he shot himself, telling his viewers that the “operation is a secret,” adding, “I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, but you’re going to watch it live.”
Don Lemon speaks to the media after a hearing at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles on January 30, 2026 (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Lemon clearly knows exactly what’s going to happen, as he explains why the crowd of agitators is so white and looks “MAGA coded.” He says, “There’s a reason they have so many white people here. I’ll be honest. For the operation they are conducting today, it is important to have allies, white allies here.”
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The only plausible meaning of Lemon’s bizarre left-wing babble above is that the “white allies” among the agitators were there to infiltrate the church service without arousing suspicion until everyone was in place.
At that moment, Lemon made a fateful choice that would formally define his career in journalism. Instead of choosing to tell his viewer the truth he knew, he chose to encourage the invasion of a church by agitators.
Lemon could have broken the story, but instead he helped build it.
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Once the alleged criminal disruption of the church service begins, leaving the parishioners shocked and shocked amid piercing screams, Lemon suddenly tries to pretend he’s just a journalist who stumbled upon a story. It’s a ridiculous lie.
In fact, it is very similar to the lie that agitators who physically interfere with ICE operations are merely “legal observers,” and not participants in the chaos.
During his livestream, prior to the service disruption, Lemon provided operational security for the group he was supposedly merely “covering,” which crosses the brightest line in journalistic ethics.
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By allowing himself to be part of the agitators’ “team,” as one of them brazenly says on video, Lemon made himself unfit to defeat them, and the biased results within the church show exactly why.
Every churchgoer Lemon interviewed, including the pastor who tried to care for his flock in an emergency, was given the third degree about ICE’s supposedly evil actions, while Lemon’s fellow resistance members were not challenged about their disruption.
Lemon has clearly convinced himself that President Donald Trump, ICE and all of MAGA are an evil, fascist threat and that his first responsibility is to fight that evil. You might say, “At least he’s fairly honest about it.” But it is not ethical journalism.
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It is possible to do ‘activist journalism’ within an ethical framework. You could argue that James O’Keefe and some other gonzo shock video jocks on the right do that. But what is essential is that they admit that they are activists and do not participate in criminal activities.
Lemon, and far too many others in journalism on the left, have decided that they can somehow be part of the resistance against Trump and at the same time report on it fairly, warts and all. This has just been proven not to be the case.
It has long been argued that the only way to save the journalism industry, which is fundamentally distrusted by 70% of Americans, is to have real consequences for ethical violations.
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The First Amendment prohibits the government from imposing consequences for unethical journalism; only the industry itself can impose it, which is why Lemon should never be hired by another news organization.
This kind of harsh punishment is the only way ethics in journalism can be enforced, and my goodness, do we desperately need serious enforcement?
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There will be a reasonable and rigorous debate about the legality of Lemon’s actions in Minnesota, as there should be. But there should be no debate about his crime against journalism, as evidenced by his own livestream.
It is time for examples to be set, otherwise journalism may lose the people’s trust forever.
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