AOL, DISNEY IN TALKS TO MERGE NEWS OPERATIONS

Drudge Report ^ | 8/24/2002 | Matt Drudge

[SunStar]

TIMES staffers Elizabeth Jensen and Sallie Hofmeister report that negotiations received a 'lukewarm reception' at last week's AOLTIMEWARNER board meeting.

Under the plan AOL TIMEWARNER and CNN's news divisions would be pooled into a new company with revenues of more than $1.6 billion -- approximately $500 million to $600 million accounted for by ABC News and more than $1 billion from CNN. AOL TIMEWARNER would own between two-thirds and three-quarters of the new company, according to the plan. But operational control of the merger might be more evenly split, mitigating some objections from ABC, sources tell the LA TIMES. IMPACTING...

[SunStar]

AOLTIMEWARNER and WALT DISNEY CO. have been in talks for the past 18 months to merge CNN and ABC NEWS into a 'stand-alone news powerhouse,' reports the LOS ANGELES TIMES on Tuesday. MORE///

[Keith in Iowa]

People I know who've worked at CNN say it's a Mickey Mouse operation...

[Landru]

CNN merging with ABC, huh.
*Marvelous*

My-my; we live in the age of possibilities, eh.

Perhaps the next step, the crowning achievement after this monster is created would be cross-breeding the *thing* with any number of *giant* rodents or reptiles.

Don't have a clue what it could be called, or, what it'd look like for that matter.
But just imagine the size (& volume!) of shit that'd come outa the *thing*.
Frightening.

Well, as they always say?

..."The turd never drops far from the bunghole." ~or some-such nonsense~

[OldFriend]

LOSERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!!! hee hee

[Robert A Cook PE]

Nothing new here .....

You really think there is any difference between anybody's attitude at ABCNNBCBS and the NY Times/Washington Post/LA Times?

[martin_fierro]

[Joe Boucher]

So C.N.N. which is a liberal socialist leaning news rag will team up with pety Jennings a socialist anti American news reader. So? Just more Democrap propaganda.

[grania]

Under the plan AOL TIMEWARNER and CNN's news divisions would be pooled into a new company with revenues of more than $1.6 billion -- approximately $500 million to $600 million accounted for by ABC News and more than $1 billion from CNN. AOL TIMEWARNER would own between two-thirds and three-quarters of the new company, according to the plan.

The fact that the corporation that runs Disney's fantasyland also controls the media and the news is just awful for those who want objective and honest information which is not geared toward selling us stuff and making us feel good about what's going on.

It's a small world folks, and everything you learn about it is seriously distorted.

[Lion's Cub]

LMAO-- and trying not to, because it's really not a laughing matter. If this merger makes the anti-American media stronger, it's not a good thing. We want them to die off--not grow in staying power. They are already trying to crush conservative media and think tanks--FR included.

[sultan88]

"Perhaps the next step, the crowning achievement after this monster is created would be cross-breeding the *thing* with any number of *giant* rodents or reptiles."

Soon there will be just ONE...and we will all be speaking newspeak.

[EdReform]

AOL, DISNEY IN TALKS TO MERGE NEWS OPERATIONS

Seems queer...

[mhking]

People I know who've worked at CNN say it's a Mickey Mouse operation...

I can vouch for that first hand (I worked there for three years).

[Pokey78]

LA Times: AOL, Disney in Talks to Merge News Operations

NEW YORK -- Top executives at AOL Time Warner Inc. and Walt Disney Co. have been negotiating a plan to spin off their CNN and ABC News divisions into a stand-alone news powerhouse, but the talks got a lukewarm reception last week at an AOL Time Warner board meeting, according to people familiar with the situation.

The proposal would leave ABC News, which carries high salaries for its celebrated news anchors, as a minority financial partner in the new venture, sources said.

[Landru]

"Soon there will be just ONE...and we will all be speaking newspeak."

Whoaaa...
Now there's an overly pessemistic, worst-case senario you've paint there, sultan. {g}
(~man that felt good...)

All kidding aside, y'know what this proposed unholy alliance reminds me of??
The marriage of the two computer industry's worst dogs, Hewlett-Packard & Compaq.
Neither are possessed of the business sense to blow 'em from here to Hell while producing the worst possible product available & as a result?
The two who're now one are *not* long for this earth.

Only a question of time before the two hemorrhaging Liberal-Socialist Lamstream losers suck each other down by virtue of their combined deadweight; and, the unadulterated bullshit that'll result from the bastard breeding.

This *merger's* the corporate equivalent of their both simply, "Whistling past the graveyeard."

...yes; I do believe that's what it is, alright. ;^)

[Middle Man]

And there used to be something called the Sherman Antitrust Act, too.

[July 4th]

Great. A news organization that sucks twice as much.

[Charles Martel]

People I know who've worked at CNN say it's a Mickey Mouse operation...

It's a match made in Hell. There's a nasty authoritarian streak in the Disney Corporation - I've heard of screenwriters referring to the organization (not entirely jokingly) as "Mauschwitz" and "Duckau."

[scholar]

CNN merging with ABC, huh. *Marvelous*

I guess I have missed something. There were once anti-trust regulations--or don't they apply to the lamestream, brainwashing, demagogue media?

[Timesink]

LMAO-- and trying not to, because it's really not a laughing matter. If this merger makes the anti-American media stronger, it's not a good thing. We want them to die off--not grow in staying power. They are already trying to crush conservative media and think tanks--FR included.

As someone who's had the, uh, pleasure of working for BOTH of these operations, I can promise you the last thing such a merger would do is make them stronger. First, no matter how much they may talk about billyuns and billyuns of dollars worth of news coverage, the reality is they'd end up firing so many "redundant" people that the combined operation would have no more reporting power than the two do separately now. In fact, it would probably be worse: Most of ABCNEWS would probably be gutted, except for the on-air talent which CNN so desperately needs. Result: One less national TV news media outlet, which is bad for all of us, no matter how slanted they are. Competition breeds initiative; monopoly breeds sloth. Second, the fact that these negotiations are going on at all is proof that these media outlets ARE losing power. ABCNEWS and CNN are making less money and getting fewer viewers; that's why they're having these negotiations in the first place. Third, this is probably never going to happen anyway, because there are just too many egos involved, and there are no bigger egos than those in TV news. (Nope, not even Hillary's.) Do you really think Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer are going to want to have to answer to a bunch of provincial yahoos from Atlanta, Georgia? Ain't gonna happen.