The conservative billionaire owner of CNN’s parent company has warned that he plans to “dismantle the partisan shift” at the far-left network, according to reports.
John Malone, the majority shareholder of the Discovery Channel and a major donor to Donald Trump, says he wants to take CNN back to its roots and “actually have journalists.”
Malone has put CNN’s leftist hosts Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Jim Acosta, and others on notice by revealing that his shakeup will involve a “large realignment of staff.”
Malone is now the biggest shareholder of the new CNN and he has been deeply unhappy with CNN’s partisan direction.
News of the coming “realignment” was revealed by Jon Nicosia, the president of News Cycle Media.
Nicosia said: “Source: John Malone, Discovery’s board member will ‘play a huge role in the new organization’s plans to return CNN to its news channel roots and dismantle the partisan organization Zucker shifted it into.’
“They continue: ‘This will mean a large realignment of staff’.”
????SOURCE: John Malone, Discovery’s board member will “play a huge role in the new organization’s plans to return @CNN to its news channel roots and dismantle the partisan organization Zucker shifted it into” They continue: “This will mean a large realignment of staff”
— Jon Nicosia (@NewsPolitics) February 23, 2022
John Malone is a media and telecommunications veteran and the majority owner of Discovery, the company that will soon run CNN.
Malone donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
Malone said recently: “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.”
Deadline reported, “Discovery’s largest shareholder, John Malone, a critic of CNN, made 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.”
Even the Democrats are in a panic over what Malone will do.
From Vanity Fair:
Toward the end of the meeting, in which prominent CNN journalists went hard at Kilar over Zucker’s resignation, special correspondent Jamie Gangel spoke up.
“The first calls I got this morning were from four members of the January 6 committee, who felt devastated for our democracy, because Jeff was not going to be around to make sure that CNN is able to do its job,” she said (later clarifying to colleagues that she meant to say four congresspeople, including one member of the committee).
From CNBC:
Back in May, AT&T announced a deal to combine its content unit WarnerMedia with Discovery.
Under the agreement, AT&T will unwind its $85 billion acquisition of TimeWarner, which closed just about three years ago, and form a new and separate media company with Discovery.
It will bring together AT&T-owned CNN, HBO, and the Warner Bros. studio and Discovery’s channels, including Animal Planet, TLC, and its namesake Discovery Channel.
At the time of the announcement, the parties had said they hoped to close the transaction in the middle of next year.
John Malone one of Discovery Channel’s major share holders purchasing CNN admitting CNN does not have real news or real journalists! pic.twitter.com/pNye4zZvLl
— Randy Quaid (@RandyRRQuaid) December 7, 2021
