CNN’s stand-alone Turkish network CNN Turk, which has long been criticized for being a tool of Turkey’s increasingly anti-American dictator, is getting a new owner, raising new questions about why CNN allows its storied name to be used by the controversial network — for a lucrative licensing fee.
A reported $890 million deal will hand control of CNN Turk and other key media outlets from the Dogan group, which paid CNN a license to independently operate the news network, to a conglomerate led by Erdogan Demiroren, an even stronger supporter of Turkish strongman Tayyip Erdogan, whose repressive policies have shuttered or disrupted dozens of media operations in recent years.
Fox News asked one of CNN’s highest ranking executives about whether the sale would cause CNN to reconsider licensing its name to CNN Turk.
“We will be meeting with the new owners in due course to discuss the implications of the sale. If, following those conversations, we have any reason whatsoever to believe the journalistic integrity of the channel could be compromised by the new owners, we will revoke the license,” said Allison Gollust, CNN’s worldwide executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
It’s not clear, however, how much more CNN Turk’s oft-criticized “journalistic integrity” would have to suffer for the network to reconsider its relationship. Critics say the network that infamously aired a nature documentary about penguins – while thousands of Turkish protestors were being brutalized in the streets by Erdogan security forces back in 2013 – is already so far gone that it’s hard to imagine what will change. – READ MORE
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