Elon Musk cancels contract with former CNN star after awkward interview

“Our first guest.

"Elon Musk like you've never seen him."

With these words, journalist Don Lemon announced his new project this Tuesday.

The star presenter, who was fired last year by the CNN network, uploaded images to social networks that showed him face to face with the owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Lemon affirms that the interview has not pleased the technology magnate who, according to the journalist's own version, has canceled the contract they had to broadcast his program,

, on the social network .

The interview will air in full on March 18.

“Elon Musk is very upset with me,” Lemon said in a video message to his followers on Instagram.

The journalist assures that the reason for the anger is the conversation between the two.

“He informed me of his decision hours after the interview I did with him on Friday,” he says in a statement.

In it, the host claims that Musk imposed no restrictions and that the conversation was conducted in a respectful manner.

This covered several topics “ranging from SpaceX to the presidential election.”

“It was a good conversation, although he clearly thinks differently,” he added.

Some media analysts in the country, who have seen some fragments, have described the exchange as “witnessing a first date that goes badly.”

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In January, Musk opened the doors of X to Lemon, who was one of the main stars of the American network for 17 years.

“She publicly invited me to join the network with a program, she told me that she would have her full support and that her public square belongs to everyone,” says Lemon.

“His commitment to this global public square, where any type of question can be asked and all ideas can be shared, does not include that people like me can ask him questions,” the journalist noted.

The controversial magnate also invited another journalistic star fired in 2023 to his platform, the controversial Tucker Carlson, an idol of the American right while he was at Fox News.

Carlson has used X to broadcast his interviews with Vladimir Putin or Viktor Orbán.

Musk has criticized Lemon's role.

“Her ways are basically the same as CNN, but on social media.

And that doesn't work,” the magnate, who has described himself as a defender of freedom of expression, said on the social network.

It was this that interested the journalist to become his first interviewee.

The program will broadcast half-hour conversations with various public figures.

can be seen on YouTube after the cancellation of the contract by X. Lemon, however, has assured that he will continue and upload the talk to the platform, which was acquired by the tycoon in October 2022.

An official account of the social network has stated that it can be seen without censorship.

“Like any company, we reserve the right to make decisions about our partnerships and, after careful consideration, X has decided not to enter into a commercial relationship with the program,” the company said in a statement.

Kara Swisher, one of the most credible technology journalists in the United States, assures that Lemon and Musk's agreement was for several million dollars.

The announcement, however, will bring new legal problems to Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world.

A spokesman for the journalist has threatened to take legal action since there is an agreement between the parties.

“Don hopes to be compensated for this one.

If we have to go to court for it, we will do it,” said the journalist's spokesperson.

The cancellation of the agreement between Musk and Lemon has paradoxically taken the journalist to what was his home for more than a decade.

Don Lemon will visit the CNN set this afternoon to reveal some excerpts from his show with host Erin Burnett.

“I believed the word of Elon and his team that they, for the first time, were interested in working directly with new and diverse voices,” said Lemon, who has been left without a platform, on Wednesday.

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