More from the article...

... Why it matters: The split comes as X CEO Linda Yaccarino announced the platform is shifting to "video first" and Musk has tried to broker deals with high-profile content creators.

What they're saying: Lemon claimed Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech "absolutist," was "mad" at him over the "tense" interview, which will be included in the premiere episode of "The Don Lemon Show" next week.

- - - "Apparently, free speech absolutism doesn't apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me," Lemon said in a video on X. ...

@#2

Well, I might have phrased it differently, but yeah.

Mr Musk has screamed about free speech, but when someone apparently says something he does not like, Mr Musk does not appear to have any qualms about silencing that speech.

@#4 ... He's a thin-skinned ultra-white snowflake. ...

Yup.

But if I may add...

He's a thin-skinned ultra-white snowflake, with a megaphone that he controls and only wants adulation to be broadcast from that megaphone.

Free-speech? I remain to be convinced that Mr Musk knows the meaning of that phrase.

More from the cited article...

...
- - - Lemon said he agreed to join X with the new show after Musk publicly encouraged him to do so.

Zoom in: "Don has a deal with X and expects to be paid for it. If we have to go to court we will," Lemon's spokesperson, Allison Gollust, said in a statement to Puck.

The other side: Axios has confirmed that X did not have a signed contract with Lemon, although there was a mutual understanding that such an agreement would soon be codified.

- - - One of X's official accounts said on Wednesday that Lemon's show is welcome to publish its content on X "without censorship."

- - - "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," it said.

- - - X did not specify why it did not partner with the show.

Of note: Just hours before Lemon announced that X dropped his show, Musk posted, "Free speech is the bedrock of democracy."

...