CNN anchor Don Lemon has copped the honor of the first on-air Trump-hater meltdown of 2017, year one of the Trump presidency. Sour Lemon’s behavior was so disgraceful and out of place during a celebration of the New Year that the network brass cut his audio feed just after midnight when he began speak of “awful” 2016. But by then he already had been drinking on-air (quaffing tequila with co-host Brooke Baldwin), and had his ear pierced before viewers’ eyes.

To be fair, Lemon has reason to dread 4 years of Trump:

The UK Daily Mail summarizes, and provides an excellent series of screen shots.

If 2016 was painful for Lemon, then he saw the year out in appropriate fashion, getting an ear piercing live on air. As midnight approached in Louisiana, the host tweeted: #CNN producers & @brookebcnn trying to convince me to get a tattoo or a piercing of some sort. Should I? #cnnnye' And it wasn't an empty threat either, as he recruited a piercer shortly afterward to stick a needle through his earlobe live on television. 'If this hurts I'm going to be so mad,' he winced as co-host Brooke Baldwin gripped his hand tightly in support.

It got even worse:

As the brass bands started to play Auld Lang Syne in New Orleans - and #drunkdonlemon trended on Twitter - the cameras cut away to crowds of joyful revelers. But the mics of hosts Lemon and Brooke Baldwin stayed on, so that the shots of fireworks and hugging were accompanied by the sounds of clinking glasses. 'Happy New Year,' Lemon can be heard saying. 'Oh my god! I need a little more - pour me a little more - a little more - perfect. That had a big head on it.' 'I can't hear a damn thing,' Lemon says to Baldwin, who agrees. Then he continues: 'So 2016 was awful...' And suddenly the sound dips away completely. Footage of New Orleans crowds plays silently for five seconds. Then the sound comes back - minus Lemon and Baldwin.

An embedded video is below of the travesty on the broadcast feed of a purported news network. Their decision on what to do about newsman Lemon’s unprofessionalism will tell us a lot about CNN's own professional standards. As they are Trump-haters in a hole, I advise them to keep digging and pretend that nothing has happened.