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Elon Musk has teased the idea of buying the liberal TV network MSNBC.
Musk floated the idea on social media, responding to a post on X shared by Donald Trump Jr. that said Comcast was putting the network up for sale.
"Hey @elonmusk I have the funniest idea ever!!!" Trump Jr. wrote alongside the post.
"How much does it cost?" Musk replied.
How much does it cost?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2024
Musk, the world's richest person, later added: "The most entertaining outcome, especially if ironic, is most likely," accompanied by a laughing emoji.
While he may have been joking, it's worth remembering that Musk made a similar comment years before acquiring X (then Twitter) in 2022.
In 2017, Musk took to the platform to declare his "love" for Twitter, to which someone replied: "You should buy it then."
"How much is it?" Musk asked.
While there's no formal indication that Musk intends to go ahead with an offer for MSNBC, the idea has already sparked some concerns.
Thomas Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences at Boston University, told The Telegraph that Musk's idea was "a bombshell on the broadcasting landscape."
"Musk's move seems like a hostile takeover and it bodes badly for the media moving forward," Whalen said. "I think how Vladimir Putin and oligarchs have been buying the free media in Russia."
It follows Comcast's announcement earlier this week that it would be spinning off some of its cable television networks, including MSNBC, into a separate company.
The new company, called "SpinCo," will provide news, sports, and entertainment content, Comcast said in a press release.
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President-elect Donald Trump has dished out some strong criticism of MSNBC in the past, and the impending Trump era is adding to internal fears over the network's future.
In a Truth Social post in 2023, Trump called the network "the world's biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats" and "nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump."
"Our so-called 'government' should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity," he wrote.
Business Insider has contacted MSNBC for comment.
