When last we left you with Don Lemon, the embattled CNN “This Morning” co-host was waking up to another unflattering report which detailed his alleged “diva-like” and “misogynistic” tendencies over the course of the near-two decades that he’s been with the still-struggling news network.

The “Variety” story, which claimed that “more than a dozen former and current colleagues… painted a picture of a journalist who flouted rules and cozied up to power all while displaying open hostility to many female co-workers” with Lemon “charm[ing] his way out of facing any meaningful consequences” each time, couldn’t happen at a worse time for Lemon, who has been trying to move forward after his “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime” comments blew up the Internet, CNN, and the Media World at large back in February.

In an update to this story, however, it appears that instead of taking the accusations of the current and former staffers quoted in the story seriously, CNN has decided to play dumb and push back, questioning the veracity of a story that relied heavily upon unnamed sources:

.@CNN responded to the Don Lemon disaster: "The Variety story provides no actual proof, and instead relies on anonymous sources and unsubstantiated claims from 10 to 15 years ago. CNN is unable to corroborate the alleged accounts." — WAIT. I thought we 'Believe all Women' ??

— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) April 5, 2023

It was a very curious reaction, to say the least, considering relying on anonymous sources to push unsubstantiated stories is more CNN’s beat, as others observed.

“CNN publishes stories everyday relying on anonymous sources and unsubstantiated claims. They wouldn’t have any content if it weren’t for anonymous sources. But y’all are supposed to believe THOSE,” wrote Political Insider columnist Rusty Weiss.

Yeah, I mean the Trump/Russia collusion hoax and CNN’s key role in the deliberate spread of all that disinformation over the course of five years come to mind. Hello?!

I said in my earlier write-up on the “Variety” story that if CNN CEO Chris Licht doesn’t take action in response to the new report, then he, too, was choosing to be a part of some of the very types of serious problems he promised to tackle when he took over as CEO.

In (slight) defense of Licht, however, I suspect the tone-deaf statement above didn’t come from him. It likely came from CNN Public Relations flack Matt Dornic, who as we’ve noted before has the finesse of a rusty nail when it comes to trying to put out all the fires his own network routinely sets – some of which are lit up by Dornic himself.

Regardless, CNN’s response to the latest controversies involving Lemon is not a good look at a time when they are desperate to be taken seriously on a national stage again.

Unless/until Licht himself issues a public response that shows that they under his “leadership” do not take the allegations against Lemon lightly, CNN will continue to set a glaringly bright example for how a media outlet should not conduct itself when one of its own stands accused of a shockingly long pattern of hostile verbal aggression and emotional abuse and disrespect of colleagues.

Flashback –>> Watch: In Which Fox News’ Bret Baier Explains Journalism 101 to CNN’s Don Lemon