(Headline USA) Politico’s new owner, Mathias Döpfner, reportedly supported former President Donald Trump in 2020 and hopes to make the publication less hostile to conservatism, according to the Washington Post.
Döpfner, who bought Politico for roughly $1 billion in 2021, told the Post in a profile released last week that he wants Politico to prove that “being nonpartisan is actually the more successful positioning.”
He described himself as a “non-Jewish Zionist” with “small-L liberal tendencies,” and noted that his son works for conservative billionaire Peter Thiel.
He also said Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who announced he intends to vote for Republicans this year, is “one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met.”
Though Döpfner has not endorsed candidates publicly, he did privately support Trump in 2020, according to an email obtained by the Post.
In the email, he wrote, “Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?”
Döpfner initially denied that he sent the email, saying it “doesn’t exist” and “has never been sent and has never been even imagined.” But when he was shown a copy of the email, Döpfner conceded that he may have sent it “as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump.”
He also expressed praise for some of Trump’s policies, arguing the former president succeeded in five out of six key issues, which include “defending the free democracies” against Russia and China, financially pressuring NATO allies, “tax reform,” negotiating peace in the Middle East and challenging Big Tech monopolies.
Döpfner is only the latest example of a media mogul who hopes to make a left-leaning platform more neutral. CNN, similarly, is under new direction after a parent company merger. The new CNN chief, Chris Licht, has echoed Döpfner’s concerns about the media’s leftist bias, saying he wants to make the network less radioactive to Republicans.
Warner Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav, who appointed Licht, said at a company town hall in April that CNN should set itself apart from a cable news industry that is dominated by “advocacy networks.”
CNN needs to be about reporting, truth and facts, he said.
“If we get that, we can have a civilized society,” said Zaslav. “And without it, if it all becomes advocacy, we don’t have a civilized society.”
