Cable news channels pulled out all the stops for their coverage of Monday night’s supposedly historic blizzard. But it was clear by Tuesday morning that they’d gone overboard, and no single news personality was singled out for derision more than CNN’s Don Lemon.
Over the course of CNN’s late-night coverage, weather experts repeatedly noted that New York City could be spared the worst of the storm and may see far less snow accumulation than the approximately two feet originally predicted.
Still, Lemon rode through the largely deserted streets of the city in what the channel a “Blizzardmobile.” He repeatedly noted that any non-emergency vehicle driving on the street in New York after 11 p.m. was breaking the law.
Twitter users mocked the coverage:
Don Lemon declares a slightly gusty NY
snow flurry “a blizzard” and is surviving it live in his Blizzardmobile. pic.twitter.com/cYdXfUhwwj
— Neil King (@NKingofDC) January 27, 2015
CNN’s Blizzardmobile. Or as regular people call it, a car. #blizzardof2015 pic.twitter.com/9b4VWATuTs
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 27, 2015
No one has told Don Lemon that the storm has been downgraded. For all of our sake, someone text him. #blizzardof2015
— Kathleen Madigan (@kathleenmadigan) January 27, 2015
Gotta be a strange feeling when you’re driving in your weird, dimly lit “Blizzard Mobile” and realize it’s only gonna be a foot of snow.
— Mike Birbiglia (@birbigs) January 27, 2015
Twist: Don Lemon’s Blizzardmobile rounds a corner and discovers, on an empty Manhattan street, the missing plane.
— Erin Gloria Ryan (@morninggloria) January 27, 2015
Is the Blizzardmobile an emergency vehicle, and if not, can Don Lemon be arrested for driving right now?
— Matt Ford (@fordm) January 27, 2015
SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT I AM WATCHING pic.twitter.com/3uDaH9EmVr
— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) January 27, 2015
Watching Don Lemon anchor a report on the Aaron Hernandez trial while riding shotgun in the Blizzardmobile is weird TV.
— Ross Maghielse (@Maghielse) January 27, 2015
In a nod to the Twitter chatter, Lemon said on-air that “people have been talking about the Blizzardmobile, but that’s what it is. We were mobile out in the storm.”
“When a city as big as New York City, the biggest city in this country, when they have sent everybody off the streets, when they close down the subway system, that’s a big, big deal,” he added.
Some other eagle-eyed viewers caught some flubs in Lemon’s coverage, as well:
Here in fly-over country, we light dusting rubes were dazzled by the breath-taking network coverage of a futuristic something called a…snowplaw or maybe a snowplow…amazing!
Wow! It’s Flack Man in the Flackmobile!
Will there ever come a point when the network lets him go?
Here in Colorado, I don’t believe ANY weather report unless it comes straight from the 9 News Weather Van that’s really an SUV. THAT dude has a parka and a wide-screen monitor in the back so you know he’s the real deal. I wish I had pictures of him at work along with his name. Lemons could take sone pointers and give ski reports.
On second thought, maybe it’s on channel 4.
I’m becoming convinced Don Lemon is an Andy kaufman type performance bent on proving that CNN is in no way a meritocracy.