Professional funny man and political pundit Jon Stewart, of the Daily Show, is raising eyebrows in offering a potential solution to media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who is anxious to acquire Time Warner.
Murdoch, who owns the media empire News Corp., faces a problem with the bid for Time Warner because CNN is a part of it, which sets up a direct conflict with News Corp.'s Fox News subsidiary. Stewart, being the jokester he is, offered Murdoch a solution in the form of a bogus Kickstarter page made just for laughs.
Stewart's solution was to raise money to buy CNN through crowdfunding on Kickstarter. Stewart jokingly said his vast network of fans may have enough purchasing power to buy CNN away from Time Warner. Stewart said the news network was worth around $10 billion.
As another source shares, Stewart urged viewers to go to letsbuycnn.com, which is not a real Kickstarter campaign but a funny website, where users cannot actually make pledges. The site features Stewart's face on the homepage making a cynical remark about the quality of CNN and urging fans to see if it can be made better, all in an obvious manner of satire.
The joke aired on Tuesday on cable television. The Time Warner bid discussed by Stewart is reportedly an $80 billion deal. It was also reported that Murdoch's bid was rejected by Time Warner's board. Murdoch, however, has a reputation for being tenacious and famously "not being able to take no for an answer," as Stewart put it.
The funny website's fictitious incentives include taking Molly (a hallucinogen) with Fareed Zakaria and the chance to launch your own fight to the death between CNN anchors. The molly fiasco would fictitiously cost $25,000 and the Hunger Games-style death match would cost a fake $1 billion.
The Daily Show is a popular news comedy parody show on Comedy Central. The show is popular among young people and Democrats.
