Will This Guy Make CNN 'Fair and Balanced'?
Meet the future owner of the troubled cable news outlet. He's a Trump donor, btw.
Today, I came across an intriguing article on the Daily Mail website about a media mogul dark horse named John Malone.
Personally, I didn’t recall ever reading about Malone or seeing him on television. But it turns out he’s a big player in the media business. At 80 years old, his career is long and impressive.
Mr. Malone is the chairman of Liberty Media, which is the largest shareholder of Discovery, Inc. The same cable conglomerate that owns a slew of broadcast channels and websites, including the Discovery Channel, GOLFTV, OWN, TLC.
Malone is a billionaire who once gave $250,000 to Donald Trump’s inauguration.
With a 25 percent voting share in Discovery, Malone will essentially hold the most power over CNN by sometime later this year. Right now, AT&T is closing a deal with Discovery that will give Discovery control of WarnerMedia and all its assets.
WarnerMedia owns….wait for it…..CNN.
Since those assets include CNN, could the left-wing news propaganda the network is known for be erased by Malone?
A few months ago, Malone told CNBC that CNN is included in this upcoming merger.
“I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing. I do believe good journalism could have a role in this future portfolio that Discovery-TimeWarner’s going to represent.” — John Malone, Media Mogul
According to a DEADLINE in-depth investigation into former CNN President Jeff Zucker’s sudden departure - Malone did most of the pushing to get Zucker to leave the cable news network known for its progressive bias by “making it known that corporate procedures had to be followed to the letter in regards to Zucker, we hear. Being that WarnerMedia’s standards of business conduct require disclosure of relationships that develop with a boss and subordinate, Zucker’s goose was officially cooked.”
In other words, it wasn’t the fact that Zucker was dating a CNN colleague that led to his departure. It was the fact that Zucker never disclosed the relationship. If he had, he may still be at CNN.
But that is what longtime critic Malone used to remove Zucker from the CNN driver’s seat.
Another detail to this mess that CNN critics are enjoying is that the clandestine relationship between Zucker and his Chief Marketing Officer was exposed during the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s CNN interactions with his brother and ex-governor Andrew Cuomo.
But let’s not digress into that cluster.
When you get to know John Malone you can start to visualize a much different CNN - one that more closely resembles FOX News, or FOX Business - perhaps something more libertarian, as John Malone is reportedly libertarian in his political views.
Here are a few quick facts from Malone’s Wikipedia page that make his future control of CNN quite intriguing:
Malone is on the board of directors of the Cato Institute
He donated $250,000 to Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017
His colleague Greg Maffei and his Liberty Media and Liberty Interactive each donated a further gift to Donald Trump of $250,000
Al Gore nicknamed Malone “Darth Vader” because of his tough negotiations
His estimated personal worth is $9 billion
In 2017, he was described as the “single largest landowner in the U.S.”
He’s also known as the ‘Cable Cowboy.’
John Malone is rustling up quite a media empire. His background and history would lead anyone to conclude that he is NOT a progressive Democrat at all. Ever.
Which makes this conservative/libertarian maverick’s eventual leadership of CNN “must-watch television.”
I remain skeptical. In any case, it makes no sense to me why anyone would want to make a substantial investment in such a badly tarnished brand.