Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. It is nearly impossible to know where the money is spent,even if you can run down the roster of donors. While Kernen did not clarify his comments, he went on to say that he sees sports as being on the right side of the Discovery portfolio. The TV deal maker will head the new venture formed by his companys merger with AT&Ts WarnerMedia, as he seeks to build a streaming juggernaut. [33], Under his leadership, Discovery began trading as a public company in 2008, became a Fortune 500 company in 2014 and acquired Scripps Networks Interactive in 2018. Zaslav laughed but did not retract his comment. On Friday morning, he shocked CNBC hosts by calling the network 'the leader of news to the left'. Zaslav is expected to name Zuckers permanent replacement when the merger closes. Discovery CEO David Zaslav addressed the companys controversial decision this week to cancel releases for Batgirl and Scoob! Zaslav also received $16,800 for a car allowance, $501 for home office expenses, $16,930 for personal security services, and $355,355 for private plane use. David Zaslav is a talented and driven man who understands change. "I think of CNN in a totally different way than I thought about it years ago. Despite the increased support from CEOs, Biden and the Democratic National Committee outraised their opponents in the second quarter. university Scrambling to walk back the comments, Discoverys team said Zaslav often uses the phrases the left or the right to reference current and future business initiatives. A continuously updated summary of the news stories that US political commentators are discussing online right now. Heidi Legg is the lead research fellow at the Future of Media Project at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. His Greenwich Village home where the WarnerMedia deal was cooked up is now on the market, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Follow him on Twitter: @joe_depaolo. Marc Benioff, the current owner of Time who's, active in homelessness issues in San Francisco,gave only $5,000 to his Salesforce.com PAC. Though Zaslav himself did not dispute the context of the comment when Joe Kernen asked for clarification, his true intent was made clear when Zaslav followed up by saying he views sports as being on the right side of the portfolio. Following this, he graduated from Boston University School of Law with a JD with honors in 1985 and started his career as an attorney with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Lieby and MacRae in New York. "It's clear Team Trump needs to break the glass and pull the fire alarm. ", Zaslavs comments contradict a Deadline report that Malone "made it known that corporate procedures had to be followed to the letter in regards to Zucker," therefore, "being that WarnerMedias standards of business conduct require disclosure of relationships that develop with a boss and subordinate, Zuckers goose was officially cooked.". Have a tip or story idea? And maybe, those legendary parties might start again. And John Malone, when you hear him, hes still a big part of your life, a big part of Discovery, if he said we need CNN to go back to reporting news". Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Zaslav had a hand in the launch of MSNBC, another left-leaning network, during his time as an NBC executive. Zaslav didnt clarify in response, and it immediatelywent viral on social media, where users pointed to it as an acknowledgement that CNN leans left politically. The Cook Political Report marks six Republican-held Senate seats in Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Montana and North Carolina as toss ups. During Thursdays meeting, Zaslav warned that staff reductions were likely as he continued to remove layers of management and combines jobs. The combined company, worth $120 billion in enterprise value, would unite Discovery with AT&T's WarnerMedia, home to CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros. A person familiar with the deal told Insider that AT&T didn't consider Comcast a viable partner because it was likely to be a slow-moving conversation, held up by thorny regulatory issues. "David Zaslav: "The future of cable is that it's declining" but says "It offers a unique proposition to advertisers. Zaslav's executive compensation package includes an annual salary of $3 million with an annual $22 million bonus. And then were the leader in news to the left, Zaslav told CNBC on Friday. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, gave but $15,000over the past20 months through his PACs Blue Origin and Amazon while his net worth grew to near $200 billion. U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a roadside stop in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., July 26, 2020. That was down from the $45.8 million that Zaslav pulled in the pr [45] He also is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center for Media and the Mt. I do. organisation [23] As CEO, Zaslav oversaw the development and launch of new networks such as Planet Green (later rebranded as Destination America),[24] The Hub,[25][26] Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN),[27] Velocity,[28][29] and Investigation Discovery,[30] as well as the company's 2018 acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive,[31] expansion of its digital education operations,[32] and current emphasis on streaming services. The Daily Callers OmeedMalik donated $150,000. That employee makes $66,689, so it would take them 565 years to equal Zaslavs annual compensation. But his new target list may include Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Reese Witherspoon or even the old Evans crowd like Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. All rights reserved. You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Sign up for notifications from Insider! No surprise, Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan collectivelygave over $2.5 million, mostly to Republicans. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. In an interview on CNBC Friday, Discovery CEO David Zaslav, as part of an assessment of his brands portfolio, took stock of CNNs place in the public consciousness and said this: CNBC host Joe Kernen immediately seized on the comment. A Discovery spokesperson told the Post that Zaslav didnt finish his thought, adding that he uses the phrase to organize his conversations around Discoverys business. Zaslav made a similar remark during an AT&T and Discovery joint news conference in May 2021, describing the left side of the joint company as everything other than the content. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Friday on CNBC that he had nothing to do with Jeff Zuckers CNN exit. David Zaslav has been enjoying a stock runup after Wall Street analysts expressed increased optimism about Warner Bros. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. Using the original ownership index, we tracked the political donations at 90 of the top U.S. news organizations. The results were surprising. : Holiday Susan Wojcicki, a major donor to Wikipedia and CEO of YouTube,donated only $8,000through Google Netpac. Laurene Powell Jobs donated over $2 million. Zaslav, known for delivering fast yes or nos to business partners, would be able to move ahead with speed. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg fund swaths of lobbyists in Washington. According to OpenSecrets, an independent nonprofit that tracks money in U.S. politics, as of last week, 2,276 groups organized as super PACs have reported their numbers. Now he will oversee WarnerMedia. According to Deadline, he even made it known that corporate procedures had to be followed to the letter in regards to Zucker., Have a tip we should know? Sinai Medical Center. Zaslav needs the house as badly as it needs Zaslav. Media tends to be a reflection of where the country is. "Sometimes it is difficult for his staff to keep up with his expectationsbut this is characteristic of a good leader who is on a mission," Discovery founder John Hendricks said of Zaslav. Discovery in April 2022. Barr also said Zaslav did not give an answer when asked about current CNN boss Jeff Zuckers future at the soon-to-be combined company. With Democratic voters po- turnout to overcome any po- week, spent Monday and Tues- by the parties. This story has been shared 108,510 times. The merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery is reportedly set to be completed early in the spring. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Usually you ditch people. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Zucker and Trump were friends in the 2000s as they teamed up on the wildly popular NBC reality show "The Apprentice," but they became bitter political enemies as Trump took over the Republican Party beginning in 2015 and romped to the White House. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. Having pulled off the media coup of the decade, the energetic executive will preside over the Warner-Discovery group. According to campaignmoney.com, during the 2020 election cycle Zaslav donated $124,250 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee out of his total $253,250 in political donations. Zaslav, 61, his wife Pam, and his adult children, mingled with TV and movie industry friends, Page Six, CNBC and Fox News anchors, plastic surgeons, and interior designers. The tennis court, he decided, needed to be moved three feet, and changed to a clay surface. [20][21], Zaslav became CEO of Discovery Communications in November 16, 2006, succeeding Judith McHale. AT&T Inc., agreed to merge its WarnerMedia division with Discovery Communications Inc., creating a streaming giant to compete with Walt Disney Co.'s Disney+ and Netflix. Holiday Haunt. That may now stretch to nine months, since Zaslav, having negotiated the $43 billion Discovery-AT&T deal, has now expanded his domain to include Warner Bros, HBO and CNN. [6][7], Zaslav was born to a Polish and Ukrainian Jewish family[8][9][10][11] in Brooklyn, New York. Biden has said he wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. We support credit card, debit card and PayPal payments. "I, and we as a company, we are a fighter for news. Raising the corporate tax rate is not exactly conducive to growing revenue or earnings," Eberhart said. Evans top films might share a weekend with two or three other wannabe hits; Zaslav confronts a mind-bending blur of some 300 services, subscription-based or video on demand, all competing for eyeballs. Of those donations, $1 million went to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC. Where do they give money for political gain around regulation and governance? But Zaslav is likely to get at least a warm initial reception. James Zelter, co-president and CIO of Apollo Global Management that owns Yahoo News, gave $35,900 to Republicansand $25,200 to Democrats. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. cookies Warner Bros. or [17] As president of Cable and Domestic TV and New Media Distribution, he oversaw content distribution to all forms of TV, negotiated for cable and satellite carriage of NBCUniversal networks and forged media partnerships.[18][19]. Zaslavs battles will be more expensive. I found these figures wanting. Last year, Zaslav vowed to take a hands-on role in the operations of CNN. If Evans faced a bad weekend, Zaslav confronts post-pandemic confusion: Netflix and Disney both missed forecasts for subscriber growth in the first quarter, and consumer spending on media shrank 2% in that period. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Philip Anschutz, owner of the Washington Examiner, gave $168,500. Barry Diller, owner of The Daily Beast and Investopedia, gave $120,000. Did Elon Musk, one of the biggest donors to Wikipedia, reallygive only $40,000 to political leaders and causesin 2020-21? [50], In 2017, Zaslav was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame. It raises the question: Does super PAC funding, often with a hefty and opaque line-item labeled media spend,fund some of these outlets? "Was there any conjecture that John Malone is behind the curtain? Transparency matters. It is intended to be the backbone of our civilization and functioning governance. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. But at Warner Bros. Jeffrey Sprecher, the CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange and husband to Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who came under scrutiny for their stock dealings during the start of the coronavirus pandemic, gave nearly $1.3 million during the April-June quarter. personalising content and ads, providing social media features and to We need radical transparency from media and social media platforms on which politicians, super PACs and lobbyists they fund. Discovery boss will soon oversee CNN as part of deal with WarnerMedia, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 16: President and CEO, Discovery, Inc. David Zaslav speaks onstage during the Discovery, Inc. TCA Winter Panel 2020 at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 16, 2020 in Pasadena, California. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Sen. James Murdoch, who left the family Fox News business, donated over $2.25 million. offers FT membership to read for free. Legal Statement. He's also known for squeezing costs out of operations, which could concern WarnerMedia employees who've already been through years of restructuring under AT&T. She owns The Atlantic, could still be the largest shareholder of Disney/ABCand funds many digital news nonprofits through the American Journalism Project, which her Emerson Collective helped to create. In his contract extension, Zaslav also received stock options valued at $190 million, making him one of the highest-paid entertainment executives in the world. Oprah Winfrey is a great example of someone who the world wanted to do business with, but David had an incredible knack for making people want to work with him," said his former boss Tom Rogers, who was president of NBC Cable where Zaslav was head of distribution and new media. All Rights Reserved. Discovery, home to Animal Planet and unscripted shows like 90 Day Fianc, may now become Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Discovery, to be sure, funded Otter Dynasty, not Game of Thrones. + Discovery and has publicly committed to keeping CNN after the merger. Discovery chief says 'Journalism First' is new mandate at CNN Evans fought valiantly for Paramount to release Last Tango in Paris and Tropic of Cancer. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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She has written extensively about the news media. A Discovery spokesperson told the Post that Zaslav didnt finish his thought, adding that he uses the phrase to organize his conversations around Discoverys business. Premium access for businesses and educational institutions. For context, OpenSecrets reported that political spending in the 2020 election reached $14 billion, the most expensive election ever. He also said, per Deadline: I think overall wed probably be better off if we just had news networks in America, rather than those with an opinion element. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for $69 per month. Discovery executives are treating Zuckersunexpected exit as a fresh startfor CNN, according to the networks own media reporter, Brian Stelter. Too many people in power are gaming the system. The answer would soon come. David Zaslav is a talented and driven man who understands change. JEFF ZUCKERS CNN EXIT: FIERY MEETING, SOMBER CONFERENCE CALL PROVE MANY STAFFERS ALREADY MISS FORMER BOSS, "So youve got a guy whos run it for nine years," Kernen said, referring to Zucker. 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