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Oscar Pistorius denied parole in South Africa in girlfriend's death
By Clyde Hughes
March 31 (UPI) -- The South African authorities on Friday denied parole to disgraced paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, who was convicted in 2017 for the shooting death of his girlfriend at his home.
Pistorius, who gained worldwide notoriety for sprinting with blade-like prosthetics, fell from grace in the 2013 death of Reeva Steenkamp in what the paralympic athlete said was an accidental shooting.
Reeva Steencamp
The department said Pistorius, 36, would not be considered for parole again until August 2024.
"While we welcome today's decision, today is not a cause for celebration," June and Barry Steenkamp said, according to The Guardian. "We miss Reeva terribly and will do so for the rest of our lives. We believe in justice and hope that it continues to prevail."
While Pistorius has continued to maintain that he had mistaken Steenkamp for a burglar at the time of the shooting, her parents have not accepted his explanation and until he does they will always oppose his release.
"Unless he comes clean, they don't feel that he is rehabilitated," the family's attorney Tania Koen said, according to NBC News.
Pistorius, who is serving a 13-year sentence for the shooting, had maintained he should be considered for parole earlier and sued for that right. South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in 2021 that Pistorius's sentence should have started in 2014 when he was sentenced to the less serious culpable homicide and not in 2017 when the same court extended his sentence from six to 13 years.
CNN’s Don Lemon has long history of sexist, ‘diva-like behavior’: report
By Ariel Zilber and Natalie O'Neill
April 5, 2023 1:59pm Updated
NYPost
Embattled CNN host Don Lemon has an appalling history of workplace misogyny that began decades before his sexist on-air comments — including allegedly threatening and demeaning former colleagues such as Soledad O’Brien , Kyra Phillips and Nancy Grace, according to a bombshell report.
Lemon — who sparked outrage in February when he declared that 51-year-old GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley was not “in her prime” — engaged in disrespectful, “diva-like” behavior often directed at his female co-workers, according to a damning expose in Variety published Wednesday.
The “CNN This Morning” co-host, 57, has allegedly called a female producer fat to her face, accused O’Brien of not being black and sent Phillips a menacing text message because he was jealous, according to the report.
“There was a time when it appeared that Black people were most often the subject of his ire. Now, it seems to me that when he says something offensive, there’s almost always a woman on the other side,” Goldie Taylor, a former CNN consultant, told Variety. “I’m never surprised when Don gets in trouble.”
In 2008, while working as co-anchor of CNN’s “Live From,” Lemon was passed over for Phillips to cover the aftermath of the Iraq invasion.
CNN's Don Lemon has a history of misogynistic behavior that includes run-ins with past colleagues Soledad O'Brien and Nancy Grace, according to a report.
Enraged, he allegedly vented his jealousy by ripping up pictures and leaving them on Phillips’ desk, two sources who worked at CNN at the time told the outlet.
She later received a threatening text message from Lemon while out with co-workers.
“Now you’ve crossed the line, and you’re going to pay for it,” read the message sent to Phillips’ phone from an anonymous number that was later reportedly traced to Lemon.
CNN conducted an investigation into the text, removed Lemon from his co-anchoring duties alongside Phillips and demoted him to weekends, according to Variety.
A spokesperson for Lemon contended that he never sent the text.
“Don says the incident never occurred and that he was never notified of any investigation,” the rep told The Post. “CNN cannot corroborate the alleged events from 15 years ago.”
Around the same time, Lemon allegedly mocked former CNN and Headline News anchor Nancy Grace on the air by mimicking her, stunning fellow colleagues, according to Variety.
Grace thinks he’s “an ass” who was generally “rude, dismissive and really unfamiliar with the [news] content being discussed,” a person close to Grace said.
Lemon soon earned a reputation for mistreating women in the newsroom, sources said.
“That was the beginning of when you knew that Don was kind of volatile and didn’t say good things about women,” said one person who reportedly witnessed Lemon mocking Grace.
When O’Brien landed the coveted gig of hosting CNN’s high profile 2008 docuseries “Black in America,” Lemon allegedly humiliated her because he had sour grapes, according to the report.
During an editorial call with roughly 30 staffers, Lemon suggested O’Brien — who is white and Afro-Cuban — isn’t actually black, two witnesses told Variety.
“Don has long had a habit of saying idiotic and inaccurate things, so it sounds pretty on brand for him,” said O’Brien, who wasn’t present during the phone call.
A CNN spokesperson told The Post, “Don denies making any related remark in a derogatory way.”
“Don, Soledad, and others, have in the past correctly referred to her Afro-Cuban heritage as it is a unique part of her personal story,” the rep added.
In 2008, Lemon reportedly told staffers that he doubted Soledad O’Brien was really black.
Getty Images
Lemon was also known around the company for flouting the rules, according to the report.
Just a year after joining CNN in 2006, the then-41-year-old Lemon started dating a 22-year-old junior staffer despite the disparity in age as well as the power dynamic, the report said.
CNN insiders told Variety that Lemon, who reportedly showed up late to the newsroom and skipped editorial meetings, was allowed to skirt the rules because of his close friendship with Turner Broadcasting chairman and CEO Phil Kent.
“As fast as you could make a rule, Don would bend it,” said one senior executive at the time.
Lemon also had the backing of Jeff Zucker, who was hired to run CNN in 2013.
Six months after Zucker’s arrival, Lemon gave a controversial on-air monologue in which he told black people to “pull up your pants.”
Lemon is also alleged to have mocked CNN and Headline News anchor Nancy Grace.
Getty Images
“Walking around with your ass and your underwear showing is not OK,” Lemon said during the broadcast. “In fact, it comes from prison when they take away belts from the prisoner so that they can’t make a weapon.”
Lemon added: “And then it evolved into which role a prisoner would have during male-on-male prison sex.”
Despite his incendiary statements, Lemon kept his job — even as co-workers complained, according to the report.
Goldie Taylor, a former CNN consultant, said she was blacklisted by the network for criticizing Lemon’s comments.
In 2014, Lemon once again drew widespread criticism when he told a Bill Cosby rape accuser that she could have prevented the attack by biting the comedian’s penis.
In September, he sparked more outrage when he used a sexist stereotype on air to explain why political commentator S.E. Cupp had verbally stumbled over a statistic about Republicans.
“Is it fair to say this because I’m not a mommy, but is it mommy brain?” he asked Cupp, prompting an awkward silence.
“No, Don, I just forgot what I was going to say,” she replied.
In February, Lemon triggered an uproar when he claimed Haley was not “in her prime” due to her age, and was ordered to undergo sensitivity training.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” actress Michelle Yeoh, 60, later appeared to take a jab at Lemon during her Oscars acceptance speech — urging ladies to not let “anyone tell you you are ever past your prime.”
On Wednesday, former CNN contributor Mary Katharine Ham pointed out that Zucker kept Lemon at CNN despite multiple screw-ups — while the women who had problems with him are no longer at the station.
“SO STRANGE, it’s all the women in this story who took issue w Lemon during the Zucker era who are no longer at CNN, not Lemon. Especially weird considering how many very righteous #metoo segments we all did. Huh,” she tweeted in reaction to the Variety piece.
Lemon also drew sharp criticism for giving advice to Jussie Smollett, the disgraced actor who fabricated claims that he was the victim of a Chicago gang assault by a mob of Trump supporters, while reporting on the sensational case.
“He should have been benched in that instance. No question,” said one long-time colleague.
A CNN spokesperson defended Lemon’s interaction with the star, and called the entire Variety story flawed.
“CNN reviewed the [Smollett] incident in question at the time and found that any interaction was an act of journalism as Don was attempting to prompt a response from Mr. Smollett and book him for his show,” a spokesperson for the network said.
“The story, which is riddled with patently false anecdotes and no concrete evidence, is entirely based on unsourced, unsubstantiated, 15-year-old anonymous gossip,” the spokesperson said.
“It’s amazing and disappointing that Variety would be so reckless.”
It's not so amazing that CNN would be so reckless!
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