“The reference I made to a woman’s ‘prime’ this morning was inartful and irrelevant, as colleagues and loved ones have pointed out, and I regret it,” said CNN host Don Lemon, “A woman’s age doesn’t define her either personally or professionally. I have countless women in my life who prove that every day.”

Thought leaders who embrace America’s graceless virtue signaling machine don’t get second chances. Those who live by the sword will inevitably die by it. It’s past time to put aside self-righteous indignation, learn to genuinely apologize, and refuse to discard each other for occasional moral failures.

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2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley set Lemon off by having the audacity to suggest the American political class is a bit aged. “We’re ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past, and we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future,” Haley said Wednesday, calling for “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old.”

Lemon clearly hoped to rhetorically hit Haley for “ageism” and missed the mark badly. “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” Mr. Lemon said, shocking his “CNN This Morning” co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. “Don’t shoot the messenger,” Mr. Lemon added. “I’m just saying what the facts are. Google it.”

Woof.

Lemon’s comments clearly point to a woman’s reproductive “prime.” Of the myriad factors relevant to serving as president of the United States, the ability to simultaneously birth children is not on the list. To make matters worse, most women in Lemon’s “prime” are excluded from the presidency anyway since the Constitution’s minimum age requirement is 35.

You could Google that right now, but all you’re going to find is Lemon’s gaffe on every major news outlet across America.

Instead of actually admitting he was gravely wrong, Lemon went with “inartful and irrelevant.” He also seems to believe that having successful women of different ages in his life somehow protects him from claims of sexism.

“We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet,” Romney said in a 2012 debate with President Barack Obama. “I went to a number of women’s groups and said, can you help us find folks? And they brought us whole binders full of women.”

That was inartful. In an effort to demonstrate his commitment to gender diversity, Romney didn’t anticipate the media seizing on “binders full of women” as the height of insensitivity at the time. His stated goal was admirable; his delivery was not.

Lemon made an overtly sexist comment, not an inartful one. His words were and are highly relevant because virtue commentary is a critical component of Lemon’s professional persona. He has positioned himself as an authority on racism, sexism, capitalism, socialism, and just about every other “ism” known to man. He’s culturally righteous, and that’s the standard Lemon stridently applies to other politicians and thought leaders.

He doesn’t mince words. “The president of the United States is racist,” Lemon boldly said of Donald Trump in Jan. 2018.

So is Don Lemon a misogynist? Is he unqualified to voice his opinion to the masses? Has he lost his moral authority? Should CNN fire him?

Our weird virtue signaling culture has one answer: Adhere absolutely to the current social gospel or suffer professional crucifixion. Put the sexist shoe on a different political foot if you’re unsure what a consistent response should look like from CNN. Imagine Fox’s Tucker Carlson had said the exact same comment as Lemon and issued a similarly weak apology.

CNN hosts would line up to call for Carlson’s resignation or termination, and Lemon would be first among them.

Republicans and conservatives tire of the endless moral lectures from Lemon and his progressive brethren. Many presently enjoy watching CNN network brass squirm to figure out how the network can keep one of the few gay, Black hosts in the industry and simultaneously not tolerate his overt sexism.

Like Trump, Lemon could certainly use a lesson or two in apologizing for boorish behavior, but it’s wrong to cast him aside for a humanizing moral failure.

Nobody is righteous. Not Lemon. Not you. Not me.

We must learn from our mistakes and grow. If we don’t, progressively tougher consequences come our way. That’s the reality as we raise children. It’s a norm present in healthy workplaces. Every successful sports team we cheer on operates under a similar dynamic.

Imagine if our performative political outrage culture applied to those areas of American life. We’d hand our children over to the state as incurable moral reprobates. The unemployment rate would be 75%. The Philadelphia Eagles would be cutting Jalen Hurts for a Super Bowl fumble instead of trying to sign him to a massive contract extension.

Lemon’s horrible comments provide CNN an opportunity to show a little grace and give the host an opportunity to prove the gaffe as an error rather than evidence of his misogynistic character. Hopefully Lemon learns from it and takes a step down from his judgment seat when it comes to his own commentary.

Otherwise, to borrow from Gil Scott-Heron, Don Lemon’s crucifixion will not be televised. He will become the latest professional casualty of an industry which cares more about the virtue performed than uplifting human personalities.

Smith is a recovering political attorney with four boys, two dogs, a bearded dragon, and an extremely patient wife. He engages media, business, and policy through the Triptych Foundation and Triptych Media. Please direct outrage or agreement to [email protected] or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.