A billionaire who has part ownership of CNN blasted the network as ‘too political’ and claimed the bias has dragged ratings into the gutter.
John Malone, a major shareholder in CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery, criticized the cable news network during a Thursday interview with Kara Swisher, herself a CNN contributor.
The discussion aired on Swisher’s podcast and she asked the media mogul about his prior attacks on CNN in 2021, back when Warner Bros. and Discovery were merging.
Back then, in comments to The New York Times, Malone said CNN didn’t focus enough on journalism, adding that it was a poor competitor to Fox News.
His opinion has even hardened with time as he insists CNN is ‘too political’ to compete with Fox and MSNBC.
When Swisher pointed out that Fox is just as political, Malone responded, ‘Yeah, but they don’t hold themselves to be all journalism.’
‘They hold themselves to be sometimes journalism, but a Sean Hannity openly admits he’s very biased, which he is, and the various, let’s call them quasi-celebrities that have their hour here and the hour there,’ he said.
‘I mean, let’s face it, when you have a comedian, Greg Gutfeld, right, is getting a big audience, and his personal political position is very, is very right-wing, okay?’ he added.
John Malone, a major shareholder in CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery, criticized CNN during a Thursday interview with Kara Swisher. He said the network is ‘too political’ to compete with Fox News and even MSNBC
Malone made the criticism of CNN on a Thursday episode of Kara Swisher’s podcast
Fox News consistently beats MSNBC and CNN in the ratings, as data from Adweek routinely show
‘Is it entertainment or is it news? Well, I think it’s, it’s entertainment. They don’t try to be overwhelmingly factual,’ Malone said of most shows on Fox News. ‘They try to be controversial and funny and keep an audience.’
Fox News consistently beats MSNBC and CNN in the ratings, as data from Adweek routinely show.
Swisher then asked Malone which CNN anchors he thought were biased, perhaps looking for a solution to the clear audience decline.
‘Look, the trouble with bias is it’s almost invisible. These are good people. These are people who believe they’re not biased,’ Malone said.
‘I mean, if you look at the political affiliations of the journalism industry, who they contribute to, who they register to vote with, okay, you’ll find damn few professional journalists on the right. Damn few,’ he added.
Swisher pointed out that exclusively right-wing networks are on the rise, such as One America News and Newsmax.
‘And yes, there is a rising group because there is a rising economic structure that’s willing to support it. I want a news service that not only serves the public, but makes us money,’ Malone said.
Malone describes himself as a libertarian and donated $250,000 to Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017. He donated to many Republicans during the 2024 cycle as well, including Trump.
