After interview clash resulted in Musk terminating contract, the owner of X seeks to dismiss resulting lawsuit
The bad blood between Elon Musk and Don Lemon is again in the headlines, after the world’s richest man blamed the former CNN anchor for a cancelled contract.
Reuters reported that Elon Musk and X have this week asked a federal judge to dismiss Don Lemon’s lawsuit claiming they defrauded him by cancelling a partnership on the social media platform following a contentious interview.
It was back in March this year when Elon Musk had abruptly cancelled the contract of former CNN anchor Don Lemon to host a talk show on X (formerly Twitter).
Cancelled talk show
Musk had cancelled the arrangement, after he had been challenged by Lemon over the platform’s content moderation practices, hate speech, and Musk’s drug use, during the first interview for the new talk show.
During that interview, Musk had admitted to Lemon that “you are upsetting me”.
Musk had also defended keeping up several antisemitic and racist posts on the platform, stating they were not illegal.
“So, Don, you love censorship, is what you’re saying?” Musk said during the interview.
Lemon replied that he believed in moderation, to which Musk replied: “Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship.”
After the interview was taped, Musk texted Lemon saying “contract terminated.”
“His approach was basically just ‘CNN, but on social media’, which doesn’t work,” Musk later said in a post, adding that Lemon was welcome to build viewership on the platform.
Lemon however published the Musk interview on YouTube, and said that “his commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me”.
Then in early August Don Lemon filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, alleging Musk unfairly terminated their deal, refused to pay him, and used the media personality’s name to attract advertisers.
The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco, and claimed that X agreed to pay Lemon at least $1.5 million with additional payments as incentives and a part of the advertising revenue.
Elon Musk’s X had in January 2024 signed Don Lemon, as well as former US congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and sports radio host Jim Rome, as part of an effort to grow video content on the site and bring advertisers back to its platform.
Dismissal filing
Now according to Reuters in a Monday night filing in San Francisco federal court, Musk said he did nothing wrong by allegedly telling Lemon there was “no need” to sign a contract, and that he and X would give Lemon “full authority and control” over his work even if they did not like his views.
Musk called it unreasonable for Lemon to rely on a vague statement that a written contract was unnecessary for a multimillion-dollar partnership.
The billionaire also reportedly blamed the collapse of the partnership in March on Lemon, saying he genuinely believed it would work before Lemon “soured the relationship by conducting an invasive and inappropriate interview of him.”
X also sought a dismissal of the lawsuit, saying a breakdown of a high-profile business arrangement “may be grounds for upset feelings” but did not entitle Lemon to prevail. It also objected to what it called his “invasive and charged interview” of Musk.
Reuters reported that Carney Shegerian, a lawyer for Lemon, said in an email: “X’s response confirms the company terminated its contract with Don after he asked interview questions that Musk didn’t like. This comes after months of X courting Don relentlessly to boost their tanking ad sales.
“This filing is clearly about Musk’s ego, not the facts,” Shegerian added. “We look forward to our day in court.”
In seeking a dismissal of Lemon’s lawsuit, Musk also reportedly said the case did not belong in California, originally in a state court, because he was a Texas resident while Lemon lived in New York.
Musk reportedly said the case could alternatively be moved to Texas.