Claim: Elon Musk purchased CNN in November 2024. [Ratings and Reviews:].
Rumors spread online shortly after former U.S. President Donald Trump won reelection in November 2024 stated that Elon Musk, owner and CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX had purchased CNN.
On Nov. 7 — on which Reuters first reported of Milei’s plans to meet Musk and Trump the following week in America — President Javier Milei generated speculation by speaking before the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and spreading this rumor as fact through public addresses to chamber members and social media posts; many social media users and publishers also repeated it with references back to Milei.
But the claim that Musk had purchased CNN was false – rather, this false claim originated weeks earlier on an obscure parody and satire website. We attempted to reach Milei’s press office for comment about why they promoted such falsehood and will update this piece if we hear back anything further on his behalf.
One Online Post Shared the Rumor
Of all of the posts sharing this rumor online, one Facebook post from Nov. 4 received over 75,000 reactions; it stated, “Elon Musk Agrees to $3 Billion to Acquire CNN; Reportedly Eyeing Acquisition as Part of His Plan ‘To Fix Media One Network at a Time.'”.
On Nov. 1, YouTube video “Elon Musk: ‘I am officially buying CNN.'” Many X users also repeated this rumor.
Clarin was among several publications who shared this claim, particularly Clarin — Argentina’s premier Spanish-language daily with wide distribution based in Buenos Aires. On Nov 7, Clarin’s Javier Milei stated on X (archived): ‘Elon Musk has bought CNN to serve Donald Trump.”
Clarin.com published an archived Spanish article featuring Milei’s words to Clarin readers that included his enthusiasm over Elon Musk buying CNN; Milei spoke of being more excited for Trump because now we will not only enjoy freedom in X, but we will have access to networks which don’t promote Marxist ideologies as heavily.” (Google Translate was used for translation services of various quotes featured here and others found throughout this piece). (Snopes also provided translation services).)
@NewsLiberdade X published an archived video (archived ) with Spanish subtitling that highlighted Milei’s remarks against Musk and CNN.
Brasil Paralelo published the false rumor on Nov. 7 through its Portuguese-language article with the headline, “Javier Milei revealed that Elon Musk bought CNN.” Several hours after publishing that piece, Brasil Paralelo removed and archived that story and reported on another story clarifying no credible person confirmed his supposed purchase of CNN; nonetheless as of Nov 8 Google search results still displayed the headline from it as did several posts on X.Larger: Where Did this Rumor Come From?
PolitiFact released an investigative piece (archived here) in October detailing the facts and sources behind an untrue rumor that Elon Musk purchased CNN.
Six days earlier, on October 18, SpaceXMania.net released an article with a similar headline as that displayed by Facebook: “Elon Musk Reportedly Eyeing CNN Acquisition: ‘I’ll Fix Media One Network at a Time’.”
SpaceXMania.com made clear its output consisted of parody and satire in its footer section disclaimer: “Welcome to SpaceXMania! Here, you can find parody news updates as well as humorous satirical commentaries that are all fake! Nothing found here is real so enjoy.”
As background, here is why we alert readers of rumors created by sources who label their output humorous or satirical: For this function (function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)), only returns true if (function()n.callMethod? >) is true
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