In an interview article that is part-hit piece and part-apology, GQ’s Taffy Brodesser-Akner presents a bizarre portrait of the often-mocked CNN “news-like” anchor, Don Lemon. The piece deliberately highlights the host’s litany of embarrassing gaffs, then sort of defends them, ultimately labeling Lemon “not the steady, infallible news anchor America needs right now,” but “the anchor we deserve.”

The lead-in sets the tone:

So maybe he's not Walter Cronkite. Maybe he's done some famously awkward interviews, gotten his facts wrong, and made CNN the butt of more than a few jokes. But that won't stop Don Lemon. Because here's the thing: He can fill hours of nothing with a crisp, news-like something. No matter what he says, no matter how badly he screws up, he never blinks. That's his gift: He just keeps on going.

Brodesser-Akner underscores Lemon’s growing list of cringeable moments—and even adds a few more. A caption for one of the article's images (which feature Lemon doing childish things, like holding a smiley face balloon and skipping rope with the mic cord) makes sure to note the “true fact” that Lemon asked the GQ photographer after the photo shoot if he did nudes.

The interviewer describes in detail Lemon’s insistence during their dessert date that sorbet is pronounced “sorbette” until a waiter corrects him. We’re also told that at the end of the interview Lemon caught sight of some attractive male waiters and, “not giving a shit,” made “aren't-you-delicious noises as they walked by, loudly enough for me to hear.”

The author explains that part of Lemon’s success at CNN is the network’s dedication to simply filling airtime with “news-like” talk—“questions but no answers”—and trying to drum up reaction, any type of reaction, from viewers. As evidence, Brodesser-Akner quotes CNN president Jeff Zucker who suggested Lemon’s worth for the station is simply that he stirs up conversation.

"There's certainly a lot of interest in Don Lemon, and that's a good thing for Don and for CNN. You know, Don is a little bit of a lightning rod. Frankly, we needed a little bit of lightning," said Zucker.

The piece also provides some details about Lemon’s homosexuality and sense of otherness, and at one point notes that he was raped at as a child, which Lemon said actually tied into one of his biggest gaffs. Here’s the passage:

When I ask Lemon about his interview with the alleged Cosby victim and why he asked about the "usage of the teeth," he gives me a long answer about how the incident started a conversation about sex abuse. But it didn't do that, I tell him—it started a conversation about people who say the wrong thing to victims of sexual abuse. And shouldn't he have known better? After all, he was a victim, too. He smiles and shrugs and eats his food. Later, after dessert, I ask him again, and finally I get the real answer: Lemon tells me that when he was a child and was being forced to perform oral sex on his abuser, he told that fucker that the next time, he'd bite his dick off, and that's when Don Lemon stopped getting molested.

In the end, Brodesser-Akner argues that Lemon’s unorthodox positions a gay black man make him an easier target for the public, saying there’s something about “a black gay man breaking with the rules of both groups, and so it becomes okay to make fun of Don Lemon in a way that it is not currently okay to make fun of any other black or gay public figure in America right now.” Though he may not be the anchor America “needs right now,” Brodesser-Akner concludes, Lemon “sure feels like the anchor we deserve.”