CNN’s Don Lemon makes waves, sometimes at his own network’s expense

The Cutline

Don Lemon is having a coming out party--and this one has nothing to do with the CNN weekend anchor's recent announcement that he's gay.

Lemon--who came out of the closet in a memoir published in May--was the focus of a "Daily Show" segment last week.

"Every so often a news anchor ends up becoming a story," Stewart said. "Dan Rather roughed up on the floor of the Democratic Convention, Marv Albert having a sex scandal, Barbara Walters causing the destruction on the Hindenburg. But lately watching CNN I've noticed something brewing there newsworthy as well."

Stewart then introduced the segment--"CNN anchor appears to not care for CNN"--with a clip of Lemon blissfully dismissing a CNN segment about a study that calculated the real-life cost of Harry Potter's education to be more than Harvard's. Stewart suggested CNN producers create a show to showcase Lemon's hard journalism chops called "Lemon Harangue." (Earlier in the week, Lemon was name-checked on "The Colbert Report" by Stephen Colbert failing to recognize a guest's vampire fangs.)

But Lemon's biggest on-air moment to-date happened on Saturday, when he clashed with Sen. Rand Paul during a segment the debt ceiling debate.

Lemon had asked all congressional guests to discuss the then-partisan deadlock on Capitol Hill "without talking points." When Lemon pressed Paul to discuss the tea party position without them, the exchange became a bit contentious.

When Lemon interrupted something that sounded like a talking point, Paul demanded to "finish my thought."

"I don't want talking points," Lemon said. "With all due respect, I'm asking you, do you feel the public sentiment in Washington?"

"This isn't a talking point," Paul responded. "I'm trying to tell you what we did 30 minutes ago in the Senate."

Later, Lemon defended his line of questioning to viewers. "It's not ideological to ask someone to stick to the question presented," he said. "It's just being respectful of you--the voter."

You can watch both the "Daily Show" and CNN segments below: