Elon Musk must have been really unhappy with his recent interview with former CNN anchor Don Lemon.
That’s because he canceled a proposed X partnership right after Lemon interviewed him for his new show, which had been set to debut on the platform March 18.
Lemon made the announcement on X Wednesday and said the cancellation came “hours after an interview I conducted with him on Friday.”
The interview is still the show’s premiere episode, but it will run on YouTube instead.
Tech journalist Kara Swisher is reporting that Musk was miffed when Lemon asked the mogul about his alleged ketamine use.
Lemon said Musk’s reaction is strange, considering he “publicly encouraged me to join X with a new show, saying I would have his ‘full support,’ and that his ‘digital town square is for all.’”
In fact, Lemon said he agreed to work with Musk after the billionaire promised “significant commitments about the support X would provide for the show.”
″I made the decision to work with them in a unique partnership that I believed would ultimately assure that my work would be available to the most people, in the largest possible venue.
“I took Elon and his management team’s word that they, for the first time, were interested in working directly with new and diverse voices.”
Lemon said Musk did not make any restrictions on their interview, so the veteran reporter asked questions that “were respectful and wide ranging, covering everything from SpaceX to the presidential election.”
Although Lemon thought it was “a good conversation,” he said, “clearly [Musk] felt differently.”
Lemon then threw shade toward Musk, saying, “His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems not to include questions of him from people like me.”
Lemon supplemented the official announcement of his show’s cancellation with a video in which he seemed almost happy about the news, and promised to share details of what went down with Musk in coming days.
Musk responded to Lemon’s posts by saying he thought Lemon’s approach “was basically just “CNN, but on social media,” which he said “doesn’t work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying.”
He added that “instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just [former CNN chair] Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so lacked authenticity.”
In a statement posted from X’s corporate account, the platform said Lemon’s show is “welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities.
“However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show,” the statement continued.
Still, there were plenty of people on the platform who had thoughts. Lots of thoughts.