Post by LFC on Oct 19, 2022 19:17:48 GMT
Sounds like we need a specific thread for the Fauxification of CNN now that a wingnut billionaire has managed to get himself on the board. To recap there's this initial post I put up on the Random thread. Here's a bit of what I had quoted.
The fallout from the firing of Brian Stelter and the cancellation of Reliable Sources continues this week.
CNN insiders tell Confider that staffers cannot shake the feeling the shocking move was made to appease John Malone, a right-leaning billionaire, close friend of the Murdoch family, and key Warner Bros. Discovery board member who has made it well-known that he would like CNN to be more “centrist”—whatever that means.
While Malone has denied he is “directly involved” in any decisions about CNN, multiple current and former staffers who spoke to us relayed a fear that the libertarian mogul is indirectly dictating an agenda to newly installed CNN boss Chris Licht.
CNN insiders tell Confider that staffers cannot shake the feeling the shocking move was made to appease John Malone, a right-leaning billionaire, close friend of the Murdoch family, and key Warner Bros. Discovery board member who has made it well-known that he would like CNN to be more “centrist”—whatever that means.
While Malone has denied he is “directly involved” in any decisions about CNN, multiple current and former staffers who spoke to us relayed a fear that the libertarian mogul is indirectly dictating an agenda to newly installed CNN boss Chris Licht.
Then this.
CNN’s low energy purge of its news staff continues apace. John Harwood apparently got the news this morning that he was out. The clearest explanation of what’s happening is that the company is now under Republican management, specifically top shareholder and Trump donor John Malone. Many at CNN believe his understanding of and exposure to CNN is essentially what he sees of it through Fox News. They’re probably right. But there’s a deeper structural issue at play that is also important to keep in mind.
And this.
In this week’s podcast, Kate Riga and I talked about the on-going talent purge at CNN. We’ve discussed this before. CNN is under new Republican management and the top shareholder has announced his intention to make the network less “liberal” and more “centrist.” There are both ideological and business drivers, which I discussed last week. But I want to dig into the mechanics, which seem to be getting short shrift in the media discussion. Two rungs down the ladder from the top corporate boss is CNN boss Chris Licht. The game plan may come from on high (i.e., Trump donor billionaire John Malone) but Licht is the implementer. So far Brian Stelter and John Harwood have been axed and the rumor mill is now fixated on Brianna Keilar, a CNN host deemed “too liberal” or too critical of Trump for the new “centrist” CNN.
If you read the insider sheets like I do they are chock full of palace intrigue and rumors about Keilar’s imminent demise. Last week she went on a multi-day obsession about the presence of Marines in the background for Joe Biden’s big “MAGA Republicans” speech. This was a 48-hour hullabaloo. People can reasonably disagree over whether it was the appropriate optics. But she simply would not let it go. To me it seemed like a rather transparent effort to curry favor with Licht and show she could adapt to the new regime. Dylan Byers’ new column in Puck suggests that this was the takeaway within CNN as well.
The most striking thing about Licht’s firings to date is how they are choreographed for public consumption, particularly right-wing media consumption. They also seem designed to instill not only fear but uncertainty within CNN ranks which will lead on air talent to, for lack of a better word, discipline themselves without being told to directly.
If you read the insider sheets like I do they are chock full of palace intrigue and rumors about Keilar’s imminent demise. Last week she went on a multi-day obsession about the presence of Marines in the background for Joe Biden’s big “MAGA Republicans” speech. This was a 48-hour hullabaloo. People can reasonably disagree over whether it was the appropriate optics. But she simply would not let it go. To me it seemed like a rather transparent effort to curry favor with Licht and show she could adapt to the new regime. Dylan Byers’ new column in Puck suggests that this was the takeaway within CNN as well.
The most striking thing about Licht’s firings to date is how they are choreographed for public consumption, particularly right-wing media consumption. They also seem designed to instill not only fear but uncertainty within CNN ranks which will lead on air talent to, for lack of a better word, discipline themselves without being told to directly.
And then there was this.
As reported in Random, Politico was also bought out by a right-wing, MAGAt billionaire. The destruction of establishment media through purchase by crazy, fascist billionaires is clearly now a strategy that's in vogue.
As reported in Random, Politico was also bought out by a right-wing, MAGAt billionaire. The destruction of establishment media through purchase by crazy, fascist billionaires is clearly now a strategy that's in vogue.
Meanwhile Kanye bought Parler.
