A Donald Trump-supporting New York billionaire says that he wants to buy embattled CNN from Warner Bros. Discovery.
Grocery mogul John Catsimatidis told The New York Post that he would “go run the place tomorrow morning and all I’d want is $1 per year.”
The news network has been hit by falling ratings and earlier this week under-fire CEO Chris Licht, who attempted to drag CNN to the right, was fired after a searing profile in The Atlantic.
Greek-born Mr Catsimatidis, 74, refused to tell the newspaper how much he would be willing to offer for CNN.
“It’s up to the investment bankers to come up with the numbers,” he said, as he suggested that finance to complete the deal would not be an issue.
“We could always bring partners in, but I want to run the place,” he continued. “We are capable of putting down a substantial amount of money.”
And he added: “I’d go run the place tomorrow morning, and all I’d want is $1 per year and a piece of the upside.”
Mr Catsimatidis, who has a reported personal wealth of more than $4bn, is already in the media business having bought New York’s WABC radio station for $12.5m in 2019.
“Whoever is running that company (CNN) is wrong,” Mr Catsimatidis said, telling the newspaper the network should not have fired Mr Licht, who supported the controversial Donald Trump town hall.
“If the network is getting half a million (viewers) a night and they have Trump on and they get 3 million (viewers), to fire the CEO for getting that many people…” he said.
But he insisted that if took over CNN he would continue to try and ensure that Republicans got equal coverage to Democrats.
“I want the truth, not opinions. If people say there’s two truths, let’s voice both truths and let the viewers decide.”
