Billionaire ‘French Murdoch’ Is Building His Own Right-Wing Media Empire
Bollore says his media strategy is driven purely by business metrics. But many see a deeply conservative ideological agenda.
Vincent Bollore
Photographer: Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP/Getty Images
The seven-part 2019 American television series “The Loudest Voice” on Roger Ailes, the mastermind behind the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News into a powerhouse of right-wing politics in the US, found an avid viewer in France: billionaire Vincent Bollore.
The series resonated with the French media baron, a person close to him said. Bollore has taken his own CNews TV channel sharply to the right by tapping into the formula that’s paid off handsomely for Murdoch — catering to conservative audiences deemed to be under-served by the mostly left-leaning mainstream media. As Bollore takes that winning blueprint to his ever-expanding media empire, he’s being dubbed the “French Murdoch.’’