Michael William Lebron (born August 26, 1958), better known as Lionel, is an American syndicated radio, television and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

legal and media analyst. He is known as a leading promoter of the far-right

QAnon conspiracy theory QAnon ( , ) is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". T ...

Early life and education

Lebron was born and raised in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

, where he attended Jesuit High School. Lebron graduated from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

and

Stetson University College of Law Stetson University College of Law (Stetson Law), founded in 1900 and part of Stetson University, is Florida's first law school. Originally located near the university's main campus in DeLand, Florida, the law school moved in 1954 to Gulfport, Fl ...

. After graduating from law school, Lebron worked with the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office.

Career

Lebron hosted the CourtTV law show '' Snap Judgment'' in the late 1990s. Lionel then began appearing on WABC radio in New York. He first appeared as a caller to WFLA in

, drawing attention to himself by avoiding the given topic of discussion. He was eventually given his own time slot on WFLA before moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Beginning in May 2007, Lebron replaced ''

The Majority Report with Sam Seder ''The Majority Report with Sam Seder'' is an Internet talk radio program and podcast hosted by Sam Seder. The program focuses on the discussion of current events and political affairs from a social democratic, democratic socialist and a progre ...

'' on

Air America Radio Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left wing alternative to counter ...

with a daily three-hour talk show.

Seder The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew c ...

claimed that Lebron's unpopularity with Air America's listeners led to the loss of most of Seder's audience within a year of assuming the timeslot, as well as the loss of two-thirds of the live affiliates and live streaming. ''

Talkers Magazine ''Talkers Magazine'' is a trade-industry publication related to talk radio in the United States. Its slogan is "The Bible of Talk Radio and the New Talk Media". In addition to radio, it also covers talk shows on broadcast and cable television, a ...

'' included Lebron in its 2010 "Heaviest Hundred" list at number 54 and in its 2013 "Frontier Fifty" list at number 37. In 2015, he won a New York Emmy Award for commentary and editorial writing. Lebron also appeared in an episode of ''House of Cards''. He has appeared on the Russian RT network as a legal and political analyst.

Promotion of conspiracy theories

Since losing his show on Air America, Lebron shifted his politics to the right and re-established himself as a right-wing conspiracy theorist for

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...

' ''

InfoWars ''InfoWars'' is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operates under Free Speech Systems LLC. Talk shows and other content for the site are created primarily in stud ...

'' network, where he has used his show to promote conspiracy theories, such as

birtherism During Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008, throughout his presidency and afterwards, there was extensive news coverage of Obama's religious preference, birthplace, and of the individuals questioning his religious belief and citi ...

(false claims that President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

was not born in the United States) and claims the government is involved in a cover-up of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

(the 9/11 truth movement). He has promoted the far-right conspiracy theory

QAnon QAnon ( , ) is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". ...

. In August 2018, Lebron met with President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

and was photographed with Trump. Lebron stated that the two did not talk about QAnon, but said that Trump "knows about" the conspiracy theory. Lebron has regularly hosted

Jerome Corsi Jerome Robert Corsi (born August 31, 1946) is an American politcal scientist and author critical of the left wing. His two ''New York Times'' best-selling books, '' Unfit for Command'' (2004) and ''The Obama Nation'' (2008), attacked Democrat ...

, a supporter of the birther movement and promoter of QAnon.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lionel 1958 births Living people American talk radio hosts Emmy Award winners Hispanic and Latino American people Jesuit High School (Tampa) alumni Radio personalities from Tampa, Florida Stetson University College of Law alumni University of South Florida alumni American conspiracy theorists Television personalities from Florida QAnon