What if someone bought CNN's parent company?

AOL/Time Warner? Takeover? Um... I don't think even Google has that much money to try even that...

Microsoft could.

You had to go there !!!!

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It would be a lot like Fox News and their propaganda.

Can't get any worse then it already is.

CNN is more than capable of producing "normal" programming - they already do this with with the international edition and already have a number of good journalists on staff or under contract.

It's hard to say, but may be other factors than playing the party line. The US region is probably influenced more by external and commercial factors where they have to appeal to advertisers for revenue. Who are these advertisers? Pharma corps (and others) who have a target of having 80% of the population on a cocktail of drugs - and not the 50%+ as it is now. Pharma corps have one of the largest groups of lobbyists in the country. These are predatory corps and rarely have the interests of the general public in mind. This is probably one of the more transparent examples of how news broadcasting can be deviated to the level of "This week's top box office movies".

CNN also have a problem - they have to appeal to as many "heads" as possible to satisfy advertisers. So, you can see a trailer of what was a serious attempt at a documentary, but it is them dramatised with appropriate Hollywood-style voiceovers to increase the public "voyeur-appeal". (Damn - it's almost like GFY) You can see exactly the same documentary in other countries - and it's totally "straight" without the high drama.

Many commerical news orgs are struggling economically - others are funded by external methods and there is more chance of getting balanced news reporting from the latter.

If anything, CNN is a commercial success story, but that comes at a cost on several levels and, only my , but think the balance and quality of programming has reached very low levels. When that happens, the cred goes out the window - but, folks used to that level, may or may not realise it.

Look guys, a Republican! GET HIM!!!

I wish there were more brash billionaires willing to put their money towards things like this, stomp around a bit. I mean it can't be *that* many billions to buy them out, couple big internationals could get together on a bid? What if the Japanese auto and electronics powerhouses did it, they could get a lot of free advertising on their media network. Then again probably a high price for what they've already dominated. I still think it would be interesting

One of the great issues of "media" is that more often than not these organizations boil down to a single individual. Fox news (and Sky and all the other parts that he owns) comes down to the political leanings and preferences of one Rupert Murdoch. If you want to keep your job in his empire, you better be putting out the word that he wants out there.

The only good news is that he is pretty old and likely to buy the farm soon enough. Then maybe someone can come in and teach the "journalists" at Fox news how to actually report news as opposed to stating personal opinion as fact.