Once again, CNN is facing an uncertain fate.
Netflix’s stunning surrender on Thursday in its effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery all but assures that the 24-hour news channel will soon be controlled by David Ellison, the chairman of Paramount Skydance and the technology heir best known in the journalism world for his recent revamp of CBS News.
Mr. Ellison’s intentions for the channel remain unclear. But the development has caused some shudders within the CNN newsroom, where the chief executive, Mark Thompson, felt compelled to issue a memo shortly after Netflix’s announcement.
“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Mr. Thompson wrote. In an email with the subject line “Corporate Update,” he urged his journalists to focus on the “newsy year at home and abroad,” including the upcoming midterm elections “and who knows what else.”
Within CNN, though, reporters and producers have expressed concern that their newsroom’s independence, a point of pride, could be compromised in the event that Paramount absorbs the company.
Mr. Ellison has a friendly relationship with President Trump, who regularly assails CNN as biased. When Mr. Ellison acquired Paramount last year, the Trump administration approved the sale after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Mr. Trump against “60 Minutes.” On Tuesday, Mr. Ellison attended Mr. Trump’s State of the Union speech as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.
Upon taking over CBS News, Mr. Ellison appointed Kenneth R. Weinstein, a conservative policy veteran with no experience overseeing news coverage, to serve as the news division’s ombudsman. And he selected Bari Weiss as editor in chief, elevating an opinion journalist with a long history of criticizing old-line media institutions.
Ms. Weiss has asked veteran CBS correspondents why the country thinks they have a liberal bias and drew accusations of political interference when she abruptly postponed a “60 Minutes” segment critical of the Trump administration. She has said that she acts independently, and some conservatives have applauded the changes.
It is unclear if Ms. Weiss would be involved in CNN’s leadership if Mr. Ellison completes the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. One logical outcome, though, might be to combine CBS and CNN’s news gathering operations.
How Mr. Trump might respond to an Ellison-owned CNN is not guaranteed. The president can be a fickle viewer; in October, he pronounced Larry and David Ellison as “friends of mine” who will “do the right thing” at CBS. But weeks later, he condemned “60 Minutes” for treating him “far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before.”
In December, when Netflix was poised to win Warner Bros., there was a sigh of relief at CNN. Netflix had chosen to exclude CNN from the Warner assets that it was seeking to purchase, meaning the channel would be unlikely to factor in any efforts to secure the blessings of the Trump administration.
In that situation, Mr. Thompson would continue to oversee the network, and Gunnar Wiedenfels, the Warner Bros. chief financial officer, would run a new spinoff company that included CNN.
But Mr. Ellison has long signaled that he wants CNN to be part of any acquisition.
Anderson Cooper, who had spent nearly 20 years as a “60 Minutes” correspondent while holding down his nightly CNN anchoring gig, surprised Paramount when he announced last week that he would not renew his deal with the CBS Sunday show. It is possible that Mr. Cooper may soon be reporting to Paramount again.
On Thursday evening, Ms. Weiss was attending an event sponsored by The Free Press, the independent site that she co-founded and sold to Mr. Ellison last year. On X, she posted a photograph from the event and added a caption.
“Nowhere I’d rather be,” Ms. Weiss wrote, and then added, puckishly, “Though I hear there’s some news?”
Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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