Politics

Editor-In-Chief: Is Obama Going To Start A Media Company?

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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President Barack Obama is interested in a career in digital media and potentially launching his own outlet, according to a report Friday from Mic citing sources close to the president.

Obama’s communications director Jan Psaki denied that the president is seeking to be involved in digital media following January 20. “While the president will remain actively engaged in inspiring young people and he is interested in the changing ways people consume information, he has no plans to get into the media business after he leaves office,” Psaki said in a statement given to Mic.

Mic’s report cites a source close to Obama who said that he met with Mark Zuckerberg during the APEC summit in Peru two weeks ago to discuss his plans to get involved in digital media. Sources told Mic that it is unknown what form it would be in and one source said that Obama has recently become less interested in starting his own company.

The president has been a sharp media critic during his time in the Oval Office. A lot of this criticism has been towards Fox News. He said in a recent interview that Fox News playing “in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country” was partly responsible for Trump’s victory. Obama has also said previously that he wouldn’t vote for himself if he watched Fox News.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks to reporters as he welcomes U.N. Secretary General-designate Antonio Guterres in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks to reporters as he welcomes U.N. Secretary General-designate Antonio Guterres in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. December 2, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

On top of the criticism of Fox, the president has recently been fascinated with fake news online. At an October event, Obama said, “We are going to have to rebuild within this wild-wild-west-of-information flow some sort of curating function that people agree to.”

“There has to be, I think, some sort of way in which we can sort through information that passes some basic truthiness tests and those that we have to discard, because they just don’t have any basis in anything that’s actually happening in the world,” the president added.