Paramount CEO David Ellison told CNBC on Thursday that CNN would maintain “editorial independence” if the company’s bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery closes, an attempt to assuage fears the news network would shift to appease the Trump administration.
“Squawk on the Street” host David Faber asked Ellison about fears that a Paramount-owned CNN, a long-running target of President Donald Trump, would end up “more beholden to the Trump administration.” TheWrap previously reported that some CNN staffers feared “it could be the end” for the network once Ellison assumes control.
Faber referenced Ellison’s control of CBS News, where he has tasked Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss with reshaping the network’s programming to appeal to a politically broader audience.
Ellison told Faber that CNN’s “independence will actually be maintained.”
“It’s maintained at CBS and it will be maintained at CNN,” he said. “Really, who we really want to talk to is the 70% of Americans [and] around the world that identify as center-left and center-right. We want to be in the truth business and we want to be in the trust business, and that’s not going to change.”
In the interview, Ellison said “we absolutely believe in the independence that needs to be maintained” at CNN, “for those incredible journalists, and we want to support that going forward.
He also spoke about the streaming transition as CNN and CBS, while emphasizing the goal is to provide consumer choice if they want to watch on broadcast, cable or streaming. “We’re going to invest in the news business,” he said, adding that the deal should be “positive” for both networks.
Ellison’s support for “editorial independence” may be viewed favorably at CNN, though his remarks are unlikely to calm fears given reported discussions between him and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and the Trump White House, as well as the perception that Weiss is shifting CBS to the right.
“CBS Evening News” struck a more Trump-friendly tone out of the gate and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi accused Weiss of making a “political” decision in shelving her report on the Trump administration sending Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison.
Producer Alicia Hastey cited a break with “journalistic merit” at the network as she left CBS News earlier this month. And last week, CBS News producer Mary Walsh stepped down after 46 years at the network, citing an increasing politicization of coverage.
“We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum,” Walsh wrote in the note obtained by TheWrap. “Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.”
