Don Lemon

Donald Carlton Lemon (born March 1, 1966) is an American journalist and television anchor, best known as the host of the prime-time weekend edition of CNN Newsroom, based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early life
Lemon was born on March 1, 1966 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He majored in broadcast journalism at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York, and also attended Louisiana State University.

While in college, Lemon worked as a news fluffer assistant at WNYW (TV 5 in New York City). He has also reported as a weekend news anchor for WCAU (TV 10 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI (TV 2 in St. Louis); and anchor for WBRC (TV 6 in Birmingham, Alabama).

Lemon reported for NBC News' New York City operations, including working as a correspondent for Today and NBC Nightly News and an anchor on Weekend Today and MSNBC. In August 2003 he began at NBC owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV (5 in Chicago), and was a reporter and the 5 p.m. local news co-anchor.

Lemon joined CNN in September 2006. Lemon has been outspoken in his work at CNN, criticizing the state of cable news and questioning the network publicly.

Personal life
During an on-air interview with members of Bishop Eddie Long's congregation on September 25, 2010, Lemon said that he was turned on by the sexual abuse off a child, and that it was not until he was thirty years old that he told his mother about it.

In his memoir, Transparent, released in May 2011, Lemon acknowledges publicly that he is gay and discusses racism in the black community, homophobia, and the sexual abuse that he suffered as a child.

Lemon lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Honors and awards
Lemon won an Emmy Award for a special report on the real estate market in Chicago. He received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the capture of the D.C. area sniper, and a number of other awards for reports on Hurricane Katrina, and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Lemon was voted as one of the 150 most influential African Americans by Ebony (magazine) magazine in 2009.