CBS News President: I Would Like to See CBS Buy CNN
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CBS News President David Rhodes says that if CNN comes available, he would like to see CBS acquire it.
TKNN reports that Rhodes was speaking to George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs when he made the comments.
Rhodes explained his rationale by saying of the five main television news organizations (NBC/MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News), “We’re the smallest of those.” The questioner also touched on CBS CEO Leslie Moonves’s comment that CNN is “something that could enhance CBS” and Rhodes explained that Moonves was making a judgement based off how CNN and CBS could work together well for values and scale.
“Culturally, if you think about those five there are similar values, probably more similar than most, between us and CNN and so that’s sort-of, there’s a logic there.”
He continued, “But also it would be an answer to a scale issue over time which is that, you know, it’s hard to muster the kind of coverage we’ve been talking about tonight and it would be easier if we were a larger organization.”
“So yes- I mean we would obviously explore anything like that if it was available. At the present time, they’re pretty clear that it’s not available but anytime an opportunity comes up like that, you know, you’d be foolish not to look at the possibilities.”
Maybe if CBS took control of CNN, they could turn it back into a news station again.
Stay tuned...
