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And an important shareholder. will dave zsalov go off on the lone reservation about this? he said basically in november that he would question, i don t know the answer to that. if i was at cnn and i was an employee and i loved working under jeff zucker for understandable reasons i would be concerned. there s no question that david zsalov as he said to me in november at a public forum believes that there s too much commentary on cnn. and if you watch cnn the anchors are much more animated with opinions than they were when ted turner started the network. true. back some three decades ago. so i would be a little nervous if i was at cnn, yes. and, ken, last question. what s the big question you would be asking in the weeks ahead? i would want to ask david zaslav do you agree with the comical things that john malone said about fox news. that s certainly one thing. ....
Know, actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing. many cnn staffers found that to be offensive. jeff zucker found that to be quite disturbing because he s looking at that thinking, what is discovery s key shareholder going to do to cnn? but here is the thing, right, ken, malone is not going to have as much power as he used to have. in this new discovery deal, in this merged company, he will just have 1% of the shares, 1% of the vote, he will just be one member of the board along with 12 or 13 or 14 others. so should cnn anchors and reporters be concerned about john malone s views of cnn? well, of course. i mean, i think what malone just said, the clip you played, was comical, it s a joke, it s not real and he s wrong. if you listened to what zsalov told me in that public forum in november he disagrees with malone. malone is his business mentor ....
Wondering what happens now. we know that kylar has appointed three steady reliable hands, three long time members of zucker s leadership team to run cnn until discovery takes over. michael bass, amy and ken. they know what to do and they re doing it every day. keeping cnn humming along. when this deal closes, probably april or may, discovery will name a new boss, a new head of cnn. i m told by sources that discovery views this as a fresh start for cnn. and maybe in a year people will look back and say this was a good thing for cnn, new leadership, but it s not what the staffers here wanted and certainly not like this. now, that s my report from the inside and, let s face it, i work here. so i decided to bring in three outsiders, three media reporters and analysts who are looking at this from outside cnn so they can bring their perspectives and you can hear independent views of this situation. let s bring them in now. claire atkinson for insider, ....
Reporting comes out why and what other elements there were. my point here is regardless even if they did want him out, he and frankly by hiding that relationship handed them ammunition that was simply not necessary. joanne and mara thank you. claire, stick around. at&t ceo john stankey is about to spin off warner media. he says he thinks the best days of cnn are still in front of it. so what is ahead for this news outlet? this week the discovery ceo who will be taking over the company praised cnn s abilities and leadership in global news gathering. he said he is good friends with zucker but had nothing to do with him leaving. the question is now about whether the vision for cnn may also be influenced by key shareholder john malone who has been critical of cnn including as recently as last november. let s talk about that with ken avletta. he has been a writer for the ....
New yorker for decades, the author of many books including one about ted turner the creator of cnn. ken, great to see you this morning. thanks, brian. what can you tell us about zucker and zsalov and what zucker was thinking about his future. my understanding is there was a world where zucker may not have been at cnn much longer anyway? well, remember, as you know better than i jeff zucker was planning to step down at the end of last year, chose not to after the merger announcement. he and zsalov are close friends. not polite friends, they re close friends and they talk and golf regularly. but when i interviewed zsalov in late november at a public forum at the paly center i asked him about cnn, i asked him about fox. he described fox news as an advocacy network and he talked about the importance of facts and suggested there was too much commentary, right wing commentary on fox. ....