Media mogul John Malone told CNN anchor Pamela Brown that the left-leaning network risks irrelevance if it cannot shed politics, reclaim neutrality and make its live signal easier to access worldwide.
“The broad perception of CNN today is that it is coming at news with a leftist, or left-of-center bias,” Malone, the billionaire who holds the title of chairman emeritus at CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, told Brown on Friday.
Editorially, Malone said CNN must return to being a “neutral observer” in debates over truth.
“If there’s going to be a debate on whose truth is right, you’re sort of a neutral observer of that debate,” he told Brown.
Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, said younger audiences increasingly drift to blogs and partisan outlets “because they feel that they’re getting a version of the facts that is more likely to be something they can agree with.”
Pressed on the future of cable news, Malone said real-time reporting will always be in demand.
“There’s always going to be an appetite to keep up with factual news that is changing constantly,” he said, pointing to financial news as a durable example.
Malone went on to praise CNN for having “the largest group of real journalists on the planet.”
The interview came as CNN remains stuck in third place in the ratings battle against Fox News and MSNBC. In August, CNN drew an average of 444,000 viewwrs in primetime, falling far behind Fox (2.30 million) and MSNBC (783,000), according to Nielsen figures.
Malone, 84, also discussed his new memoir “Born to Be Wired,” in which he discloses that he has high-functioning autism, as did his late father. He said the realization emerged only after it surfaced in his grandchildren.
Malone has long argued that CNN veered from founder Ted Turner’s vision of straight reporting into personality-driven politics.
He has urged the network to emphasize “actual journalists” and fact-based coverage over commentary.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s efforts to moderate CNN’s tone after its 2022 merger were widely reported during the network’s leadership shakeups. Analysts said Malone’s influence, as a top shareholder, loomed over those moves.
In “Born to Be Wired,” Malone writes that CNN still has some of the best journalists in the industry but has struggled with impartiality, blending straight news with analysis in ways that undercut its brand.
Since at least 2021, Malone has pushed for CNN to position itself as a centrist alternative to Fox News and MSNBC.
A CNN spokesperson referred The Post to a statement released by the network last week which said that boss Mark Thompson “has made it clear from day one that he believes in a CNN that is fair-minded and biased in favor of the facts rather than any political party or interest.”
“In the nearly two years he has been CEO and editor-in-chief, he has never experienced any attempt by anyone inside or connected to WBD to improperly influence CNN’s journalism in any way.”
