Fox trumpets CNN staff cuts

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The Fox owned cable channel that airs “Hannity” is quite excited about a bunch of people at CNN losing their jobs.

• Fox has been reporting on the staff cuts at CNN — honing in on the fact the network is cutting staff at the same time it moved into a “lavish” new headquarters in New York City.
• To rub salt in the wound, Fox’s online version of the story also notes that CNN is “ratings challenged.”
• Fox’s former parent company’s sale of assets to Disney triggered thousands of layoffs — far more than the number of jobs eliminated through buyouts at CNN or its sister companies.
• Though the layoffs were initiated by new owner Disney, it was widely expected that the merger would trigger job losses before it went through.
• In fact, most mergers cite increased efficiency, reorganization and removing duplicative positions as an advantage to a merger when trying to sell shareholders on the idea.
• Meanwhile, media mogul Rupert Murdoch saw his own wealth rise by an estimated $4.3 billion between the time the sale to Disney was announced and it went through, according to Forbes.
• Shortly after the massive spike in Murdoch’s fortune, scores of his former employees lost their jobs.
• The cuts at CNN and its sister companies holdings were triggered by the recent acquisition by AT&T, which formed the new corporate entity WarnerMedia.
• Cuts were widely anticipated as a result of the sale.
• It’s also worth noting that CNN’s move to Hudson Yards has been in the works for years, so the timing of the cuts and move to a multimillion dollar new building, while certainly bad from an optics standpoint, are not directly related.
• WarnerMedia is likely required to meet certain obligations in terms of both moving out of its old space and occupying the new building.
• Further AT&T has also opted to sell the Hudson Yards building — and lease it back — in order to help pay down WarnerMedia’s $170 billion in debt that is still around after the merger.
• Back in 2018, Fox commentator Charles Payne also seemed to take a different tune on layoffs at GM.
• “Listen, it’s not a bad thing. These other products cost a lot more money and they have fatter profit margins,” he said.