At least one person is legitimately terrified that CNN is doing so bad, that Fox News might one day take over. That person is the CEO and President of Media Matters Angelo Carusone. He said during a show on SiriusXM that he is literally āterrifiedā about the influence of Chris Licht, CNN’s new chief, and thinks that it would leave the network almost vulnerable enough to being taken over by Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News.
This is all just part of the conversation and not likely to happen. The conversation took place on The Dean Obeidallah Show. Carusone wants CNN to be successful, but still has this legitimate fear that Murdoch will find CNN at their weakest and offer to take over.
Here’s how the conversation went, according to Mediaite:
ANGELO CARUSONE: Thing I really am afraid of is that it is honesty that they sell to Rupert Murdoch. Iām terrified of this. It is super, it is his white whale and I think that it doesnāt fit into Discoveryās portfolio in a meaningful way. Iāve always been afraid of this, and the posture of making the platform more appealing, more attractive, more neutral, I think weakens it enough that they say, āLook, itās just not worth it. We didnāt get the returns on investment. It hasnāt turned the corner yet.ā You know, I donāt think theyāre going to get the audience gains that they think theyāre going to get, which is part of the strategy. And thatās a real problem, too. So at its core, Iām afraid that in the short term, we see some bad coverage out of them, some spots of bad coverage which actually have bigger harms when it comes from CNN. And then biggerā¦ But longer term, I think that it actually weakens the business model of CNN enough that it makes them more susceptible to just being spun off. And thatās not great either.
DEAN OBEIDALLAH: Thatās interesting, I never thought about that last oneā¦
ANGELO CARUSONE: So I donāt think people realize how often Rupert Murdoch tries to buy CNN. It happens all the time. He did it and he made a really aggressive, year-long plus play in 2017 and a run at it in 2014. Heās made runs I did during the early 2000, and that matters because thatās how we got the Wall Street Journal. He tried to buy it half a dozen times before it, before he eventually convinced the Bancrofts, which were the owners of the Wall Street Journal, to sell it. So I donāt think itās itās insane or too far gone to say, nah, this guy doesnāt need to finance if heās sitting on a mountain of cash that was supposed to be used and is earmarked for media acquisitions, they havenāt used it yet. Itās just I mean, thereās a mountain of cash. He doesnāt need the financing. He can pay for the deal in cash. He can overpay, which is what Rupert Murdoch always does. He always overpays, always, because he knows that itās easier.