Will Don Lemon Cover The WHCD For Round Two?

Is everyone else excited about the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night? Alright, maybe out and out excitement is too much for you, but it's still kind of fun — that annual collision of politics, entertainment, and media that always seems to leave us with some sort of lasting impression. Who could forget Karl Rove bouncing around dancing with David Gregory? And, of course, sometimes the coverage helps make the story — do you think Don Lemon will cover the White House Correspondents' Dinner again this year?

Sadly, CNN tells Bustle in a statement that no, Lemon will not be hosting. Of all the on-air talent working at CNN right now, Lemon is perhaps the most headline-grabbing, and not always for the best reasons. Knocked by the Columbia Journalism Review as providing some of the "worst journalism of 2014," Lemon did indeed have an inauspicious run last year. From musing about airplane-vanishing black holes, to his maligned Ferguson coverage, to his infamously inappropriate question of a Bill Cosby rape accuser (all of which he offered some defenses of in a recent GQ profile), he's shown a certain talent for causing controversy.

And he did cover the WHCD last year, in somewhat inglorious fashion — as Bustle noted at the time, he brought on former Nixon speechwriter (with an ahistorical anti-Obama streak) Ben Stein to discuss the event. His observation? "How long is it going to be before they have marijuana smoking at this dinner?"

But maybe Lemon is actually the ideal man for the job — if things were to stay light and fun, he's entirely capable of being charming, and if things are lagging or underwhelming, he's well trained by the constant cable news cycle to make it seem like things are going on. Like his GQ profiler Taffy Brodessler-Akner wrote, "He can fill hours of nothing with a crisp, news-like something." And, of course, CNN probably thinks he did the job just fine last year — his coverage of the correspondents dinner led the big three cable news networks in ratings (although in fairness, Fox News decided to air other things, including a special on Benghazi).

And, of course, the alternatives have to be weighed. Who do you really want helming this coverage, Don Lemon or Wolf Blitzer? In any event, you'll be able to watch a live stream of the big night any number of ways, including through CNN, so rest easy — if there's Don Lemon to be had, you won't have much trouble finding it. Whether that excites or distresses you, well, your mileage may vary. But if history is any indication, Saturday ought to be a very fun night.

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