{"id":620045,"date":"2026-08-04T14:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620045\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:27:12","slug":"david-ellison-says-cnn-is-root-cause-of-paramount-wbd-merger-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620045\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ellison Says CNN Is Root Cause Of Paramount-WBD Merger Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a guest essay for the New York Times on Tuesday, Paramount<\/a> CEO David Ellison<\/a> says CNN<\/a> is at the root of opposition to the company\u2019s merger with Warner Bros Discovery.<\/p>\n

\n\tConcerns about market share are not the main driver of antitrust lawsuits filed by 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, Ellison contends. \u201cI believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner\u2019s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe proposed $110 billion merger is on hold<\/a> pending the outcome of the lawsuit. A judge is expected to set a trial date for later this year or early in 2027.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Times essay<\/a> comes as Paramount is preparing to report second-quarter earnings<\/a> after the close of trading. WBD<\/a> will report Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs to his anticipated stewardship of CNN, Ellison writes, \u201cI can\u2019t give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, Ellison\u2019s Skydance completed its long-gestating merger with Paramount Global, giving Ellison control of CBS News<\/a>. That part of the media<\/a> empire has created non-stop controversy, particularly after pre-Skydance Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit<\/a> by the Trump administration over the editing and promotion of a 60 Minutes interview, with the suit widely viewed as frivolous. The makeover of top-rated 60 Minutes, with most of its correspondents departing in recent months amid charges of meddling by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, who reports directly to Ellison, has only added to the furor.<\/p>\n

\n\tCBS News and CNN are \u201chere to tell it straight down the middle,\u201d Ellison asserted in the essay. \u201cThat requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence. Our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve \u2013 not to any party or cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDiminishing public trust in news (here Ellison cites a Gallup poll that found that just 28% of Americans trust the news) is a core issue facing all news leaders, Ellison says. As the overseer of CNN, he said restoring trust would be at the core of his mission. \u201cTrust can\u2019t be argued back, but it can be earned back \u2013 story by story, day by day,\u201d he writes. \u201cIn an age when so much of what fills our screens is machine-generated or engineered to enrage, journalism from real reporters matters more than ever. That is the work I intend to pay for, patiently, for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLeft unmentioned were some of the moves that Skydance has made that have triggered suspicions on the left, including from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Under a commitment to the FCC, Skydance agreed to hire an ombudsman to take complaints about CBS News. But the person hired, Kenneth Weinstein<\/a>, had a background that included leading the conservative think tank the Hudson Institute.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison himself has stepped into the political fray, attending Donald Trump\u2019s State of the Union address and, in April, hosting a dinner for the president<\/a> and the White House, along with CBS News correspondents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a guest essay for the New York Times on Tuesday, Paramount CEO David Ellison says CNN is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[6927,39088,36518,18,117,19,17,1109,169195,5997,128,95819],"class_list":["post-620045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-cbs-news","tag-cnn","tag-david-ellison","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-media","tag-paramount-wb","tag-paramount","tag-tv","tag-wbd"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}