Don Lemon received some support from Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly on the Monday evening edition of the O’Reilly Factor, as flagged by Mediaite.
Just 7 hours after the Change.org petition demanding CNN fire Lemon went live, it had over 1375 signatures; and 2 days following, it had over 27,000 signatures; it has since slowed down, but it has over 36,000 signatures in 5 days.
Yet Fox’s O’Reilly dedicated a segment with Fox contributors Juan Williams and Laura Ingraham to discuss the backlash Lemon and The View‘s Raven Symone.
“Websites [are] taking money to destroy people’s reputations,” O’Reilly began, “Neither Mr. Lemon nor Ms. Symone was irrational; they both condemned the action they that saw on television, but they both put it in another perspective. Mr. Lemon wanted more information […] for that, we have this website petition, signed by more than 30,000 people, that they should be fired.”
Ingraham chimed in, “We had 100 students engage in a walk-in, in support of the sheriff’s deputy, who, by all accounts, is a fairly exemplary member of the community: a coach, he’s someone the students sought out when they had problems.”
Disgusted, she said, “For them to seek out, to destroy Don Lemon… this is the typical left-wing haranguing.”
“Freedom of speech is under attack,” O’Reilly concluded.
