{"id":873808,"date":"2026-06-17T15:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/873808\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:36:16","slug":"kara-swisher-vows-to-leave-cnn-if-ellisons-their-minions-take-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/873808\/","title":{"rendered":"Kara Swisher vows to leave CNN if Ellisons, their ‘minions’ take over"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNN contributor Kara Swisher vowed to leave the network if the Ellison family, whom she derided as \u201cincompetent,\u201d and their \u201chandpicked minions\u201d take over the network in the wake of Paramount\u2019s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the CNN thing, well, you know my feelings on that,\u201d Swisher said in a Tuesday episode of her podcast \u201cPivot,\u201d with co-host Scott Galloway. \u201cI mean, I\u2019m leaving as soon as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice has cleared the blockbuster media merger<\/a> \u2014 which will combine Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, Warner Bros., HBO Max, CNN and CBS under one roof \u2014 though the deal is still awaiting approval from European Union and UK regulators.<\/p>\n

CNN contributor Kara Swisher vowed to leave the network if the \u201cincompetent\u201d Ellison family and their \u201chandpicked minions\u201d take over the channel. Getty Images for CNN<\/p>\n

CNN staffers have reportedly been panicking over the acquisition<\/a>, pointing to big shakeups at CBS News under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.<\/p>\n

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison put her in the role with a mandate to bring more balance to the network, prompting concern that similar changes are on the way at CNN if and when it comes under Paramount\u2019s aegis.<\/p>\n

During the Tuesday podcast, Galloway voiced surprise at his co-host\u2019s assertion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve been trying to talk me into doing s\u2013t at CNN for 24 months!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Swisher argued \u201cthat was before\u201d Paramount won a bidding war for CNN parent WBD, which has left it unclear whether Weiss will eventually take over editorial operations at the network <\/a>or current boss Mark Thompson will keep his role<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me try to outline it,\u201d Swisher said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to work for the Ellisons and I don\u2019t want to work for their handpicked minions because I think they\u2019re incompetent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I love working with the people at CNN. I very much like Mark Thompson, and I hope they put him in charge because I think he would do a great job,\u201d she continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oracle big Larry Ellison (left) with son Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison at the Los Angeles premiere of \u201cStar Trek Into Darkness\u201d on May 14, 2013. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t see any way that these people make good decisions and I don\u2019t trust them. That\u2019s it. I don\u2019t want to work for tech people,\u201d Swisher added. \u201cI\u2019m just not staying. There\u2019s lots of places to go. I think TV\u2019s great, but it\u2019s not that great, like to put up with this s\u2013t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galloway joked that Swisher should call up longtime \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Leslie Stahl, who announced in a joint memo with fellow journos Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim that they would stay at the newsmagazine<\/a> despite expressing outrage over a recent purge at the network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stahl told the New York Times that David Ellison personally called her<\/a> and promised to respect the independence of \u201c60 Minutes\u201d after the network fired Scott Pelley and ousted several top producers and correspondents.<\/p>\n

Swisher laughed at Galloway\u2019s sarcastic suggestion to phone Stahl, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think I have the power to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNN staffers have reportedly been panicking over the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition. Roza Gurevich \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of other options and I\u2019m under contract with them until the end of the year and I\u2019m hoping they\u2019ll let me out early, because I don\u2019t want to affiliate with them,\u201d Swisher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left [Rupert] Murdoch, too. This is not a new, fresh thing for Kara Swisher to flounce out and do better. No one cares, but it says something,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In 2007, Swisher and tech journalist Walt Mossberg started the AllThingsD blog at the Wall Street Journal as an extension of the company\u2019s annual digital conference. The pair left in 2013 to start their own site, Recode.<\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal and The Post are both owned by parent company News Corp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN contributor Kara Swisher vowed to leave the network if the Ellison family, whom she derided as \u201cincompetent,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":873809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[10755,32129,171,355263,92329,398,15329,173,67,132,68,1021],"class_list":["post-873808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-cnn","tag-david-ellison","tag-entertainment","tag-kara-swisher","tag-larry-ellison","tag-media","tag-paramount","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warner-bros"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116766191811073690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}