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Don Lemon and the Creator Class Rethink Media Power

Don Lemon argues that transparency—not false balance—is the new foundation of trust in a creator-driven media economy.

The same week Paramount Skydance clinched its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, journalists, podcasters and media executives gathered in Brooklyn for On Air Fest, an annual conference focused on podcasting, the creator economy and the future of broadcasting. Amid two days of panel discussions on the rapidly evolving media landscape, one of the sharpest conversations was a live taping of “The Don Lemon Show” about building a media business outside the legacy system. Lemon, who left CNN in 2023 after 17 years, was joined by ESPN’s Pablo Torre and comedians Gianmarco Soresi and Jay Jurden. They spoke candidly about their pivots to independent media, the push for authenticity and transparency, and the paradox at the heart of it all: Creators have never had more freedom, or more structural vulnerability.

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The panel’s most provocative argument was that point-of-view journalism has evolved beyond being simply an editorial preference for online media. Today, it’s the more trusted business model. Torre argued that legacy media’s insistence on an omniscient posture has become a liability. “Corporate media is stuck being a bit ‘voice of God’ as if we are the arbiter of neutrality, as opposed to what people are sensing, that maybe we shouldn’t trust what is being brought down to us from on high,” he........

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