All the media moguls are in Sun Valley, Idaho this week for the annual Allen & Co. conference. NBCU’s Jeff Zucker has already been on CNBC saying the marketplace has reached bottom.
Meanwhile, on FBN, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch says the overall mood of the media summit has been “bearish” on the economy.
But it was anchor Stuart Varney’s first question to his media mogul boss that stopped the interview dead in its tracks:
Varney: The story that’s really buzzing all around the country and certainly here in New York, is that the News of the World, a News Corporation newspaper in Britain used —
Murdoch: I’m not talking about that issue at all today. I’m sorry.
Varney: No worries, Mr. Chairman. That’s fine with me.
Murdoch: I’m sorry.
Varney: OK. That’s all right, sir.
Varney went on to ask Murdoch about the media coverage of Pres. Obama and whether Murdoch perceives “a switch from very much a supportive attitude to perhaps a little bit more critical?”
“No, Not yet. I think it’ll come in time. I think the media is pretty — apart from the The Wall Street Journal and Fox News and a few of our outlets, it’s been very — remains very supportive of him.”
But what may be most interesting, the version of the interview on FoxBusiness.com edited out that first question…
> Update 3:50pm: It appears FoxBusiness.com is re-editing the video as the version that is in the jump is not playing…
> Update 4:02pm: Fox Business tells us a “technical difficulty” resulted in the original version of the clip which omitted the first Q&A. The full version is after the jump…