Robertson founded CBN in 1960 and the network, which produces programs worldwide, has about 2,800 employees.

Robertson who unsucessfully ran for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination, founded the once-influential Christian Coalition and has made millions of dollars through business investments, currently hosts the CBN talk show "The 700 Club."

Training ground for conservative Christian journalists

Robertson pointed out that if he owned the Virginian-Pilot it "could provide internships for journalism students at Regent University, the private college he founded," AP reported.

A Los Angeles Times blog pointed out that Robertson has previously tried "to buy media properties such as United Press International and the Houston Post, [because he] 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."

Perhaps more importantly, Robertson's ownership would no doubt shut down the kind of independent scrutiny of his assorted enterprises that the Virginian-Pilot performed on a regular basis.  

Robertson has objected to articles in the newspaper that he said unfairly characterized him and his activities. In 1999, he disputed the Pilot's report that Virginia's consumer protection agency wanted to prosecute his international charity, Operation Blessing, for making deceptive appeals for donations but was overruled by the state attorney general's office.

The newspaper, citing a report by the consumer agency, said Robertson made false claims about the use of Operation Blessing airplanes in humanitarian relief efforts in Africa when the planes were used to haul equipment for a Robertson-backed diamond mining venture.

You don't need a weatherman

Landmark Communications also owns the Weather Channel. Given Robertson's predilection for making weather predictions, imagine what might be broadcast should the televangelist decide to pony up the nearly five billion that the company is asking for the Network.

In 2006, the Pensitop Review reported that Robertson told viewers of "The 700 Club" that God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.  

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms," Robertson said May 8. He added specifics in Wednesday's show. "There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest."

In 1998, Robertson predicted all sorts of disasters -- particularly hurricanes -- would smite central Florida because the city of Orlando welcomed gays.

Instead, Hurricane Bonnie wound up directly affecting his home town of Virginia Beach where hundreds of thousands of people were left without electricity after the hurricane struck the Virginia Beach-Norfolk area.

AP reported that according to Hoovers, a business reference service, "Landmark, which had $1.75 billion in sales in 2006, employs about 12,000 people ... owns nine daily newspapers and more than 100 other papers and specialty publications ... [and] owns television stations in Las Vegas and Nashville, and Norfolk-based Dominion Enterprises, a national chain of classified-ad publications."