Pat Robertson ponders publishing a newspaper

Pat Robertson, the Christian broadcaster who became a television station owner who founded the Family Channel before becoming a multi-millionaire by selling it to Rupert Murdoch and founding the Christian Broadcasting Network before hosting "The 700 Club" and running unsuccessfully for president in 1988 and founding Regent University and being an outspoken and controversial spokesman for conservative causes and then endorsing Rudy Giuliani for the next Republican presidential nomination anyway, is now interested in becoming a newspaper publisher.

Landmark Communications Inc., a media company based in Norfolk, Va., recently announced it's considering selling its holdings, which include the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and the Weather Channel. Analysts estimate the entire corporation's value at about $5 billion, which Robertson called "a little rich for my blood."

But "I am considering a potential bid for the Pilot and have asked my attorneys to look into it," Robertson told Philip Walzer, a reporter for the Pilot who better have gotten his possible future owner's quote right.

Robertson, who has previously been involved in unsuccessful efforts to buy media properties such as United Press International and the Houston Post, sees real synergy between owning the local newspaper, which has a daily circulation of about 186,000, and, say, the journalism department of his Regent University, a private school that has about 4,400 students.

"They better get their quotes right too," an uninformed blogger said.

-- Andrew Malcolm