In October 2006, Lyon won a regional Emmy Award, from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for a late-breaking feature news item called "Fantasy".

Her investigations have focused on cultural, social, and government demonstrations and revolutions; human rights violations; sex trafficking; and environmental issues.

While preparing for the interviews, following their arrival in the country, the CNN crew discovered that the majority of their contacts had gone into hiding or outright refused to participate, due to fears of retaliation from the governing regime.

[23] After evading their government minders and covertly entering villages to document human rights abuses in Bahrain, the film crew experienced direct retaliation when they were detained at gunpoint with machine guns.

[3][26] While CNN International denies Lyon's claims of censorship or any wrongdoing, they confirmed that they receive payment from the Bahrain Economic Development Board for advertising.

[28][29] Lyon also reported on the aftermath of the July 21, 2012, shooting of Manuel Diaz in Anaheim, California, by local police officers responding to a neighborhood watch call.

[32][33][34] While attempting to report on the shooting, along with citywide protests, Lyon and colleague Tim Pool were fired upon by members of the Anaheim Police Department who were using non-lethal ammunition.

[35] On September 5, 2012, with the help of journalist Glenn Greenwald, Lyon accused the channel CNN International of not airing her documentary on the Bahrain uprising because of unlawful business practices.

[3][26] The UK's independent watchdog, OFCOM, investigated similar claims and found CNN International (and other news broadcasters) had been guilty of airing sponsored content that wasn't labelled as such.

[36] In early 2014, Lyon launched an advocacy site called reset.me,[37] a group for the emotional healing benefits of certain psychedelic drugs, based on her own experience with them, and on her research into the history of their use.