Don Lemon says Paramount’s new deal to buy former employer ‘not my favorite’

During the GLAAD awards, Don Lemon celebrates Kristi Noem’s firing and speaks out after Paramount announces it’s buying Warner Bros.

After Paramount Global acquired Warner Bros. Discovery through its parent company Skydance Media in a landmark $110 billion deal, Don Lemon is sharing his thoughts.

On Thursday, March 5, while on the red carpet for the 37th annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, the 60-year-old veteran journalist said the new deal was “not good for journalism at all.”

“It appears that [Paramount is] trying to take an organization, especially CBS News, that’s built on journalism and move it in a certain direction politically, and that’s not what journalism is about,” he told USA Today. “Journalism is about the truth, and the truth has no right or no left, it’s just what is.”

He added that the deal, which would mean Paramount Skydance now owns his former employer, CNN, was not his “favorite,” and said he worries about what it means for journalism when a major mainstream news platform is controlled by a single corporate entity.

“It’s not good for journalism at all,” he continued. “My advice to them would be, let the journalists be journalists. Take your hands off of the newsroom.”

The merger, announced and signed on Feb. 27, combines Paramount’s existing holdings — including CBS, Paramount Pictures, and Paramount+ — with Warner Bros. Discovery’s portfolio, which includes CNN, HBO, Warner Bros. film studios and Discovery’s cable networks.

Speaking further, Lemon added that all these major mergers and the billionaires they’re making richer aren’t going to “save democracy.”

“The journalists will save our democracy,” he added. “It’s not going to be money, it’s not going to be moving people to the right politically. That’s not going to help anything; that’s only going to make America worse.”

While on stage during the awards show, Lemon also addressed the firing of the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem after his high-profile arrest in January while covering an ICE protest inside a church in Minneapolis.

“I’m not going to say much, I’m not going to go off script much. I’m just going to say two words, and you guys can cheer if you want. Kristi Noem,” Lemon said, drawing chants and applause from the audience.

“Karma is a you know what,” he added. “Let’s hope that it gets more people than just her.”

The 37th annual GLAAD Awards will air on Hulu on Saturday, March 21, 2026.