Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, said on Friday that he was looking forward to CNN being controlled by the billionaire David Ellison and implied that the channel’s journalism would improve under new leadership.
“The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” he said during a briefing at the Pentagon.
Mr. Ellison, a technology scion who is friendly with President Trump, is the owner of Paramount Skydance, whose pending purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery includes CNN. The sale requires approval from the Trump administration.
Mr. Hegseth’s remarks, made during a lengthy complaint about coverage of the war in the Middle East, underscored concerns within CNN and elsewhere in the media industry that Mr. Ellison could shift the network’s reporting in a Trump-friendly direction.
A representative for Mr. Ellison declined to comment on Friday. Last week, Mr. Ellison told CNBC that CNN was “an incredible brand with an incredible team,” and added: “Editorial independence will absolutely be maintained. It is maintained at CBS; it will be maintained at CNN.”
Mr. Ellison purchased CBS last year and he installed the opinion journalist Bari Weiss, a critic of traditional media organizations, as the editor in chief of CBS News. Ms. Weiss has drawn criticism from liberals and some CBS journalists, particularly after she postponed a “60 Minutes” report that was critical of the Trump administration; Ms. Weiss says that she acts independently.
Mr. Hegseth’s antipathy toward the mainstream media is intense; he has severely curtailed journalists’ access to the Pentagon and recently barred photographers from his briefings.
But Mr. Hegseth sat for an interview with CBS News that aired on Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes,” an appearance that Ms. Weiss helped book.
What role, if any, Ms. Weiss might play at an Ellison-owned CNN remains unclear. Among the options: she could advise on the channel’s editorial sensibility and programming decisions, or Mr. Ellison may ask her to focus on CBS News. One logical outgrowth of a sale would be to combine CBS and CNN’s operations.
Mr. Trump has expressed shifting views of Ellison-owned media properties. The president has described Mr. Ellison and his father, the Oracle founder Larry Ellison, as “friends” who will “do the right thing” with their news-gathering assets. But he has also rebuked “60 Minutes” for treating him “far worse since the so-called ‘takeover.’”
Mr. Hegseth, a former weekend co-host of “Fox & Friends,” made his comment about Mr. Ellison after objecting to what he called “fake news from CNN.” He cited a report that the administration had underestimated how its military offensive in Iran could affect the Strait of Hormuz, the passage that carries 20 percent of the world’s oil. The defense secretary called that assertion “patently ridiculous, of course.”
CNN said on Friday: “We stand by our reporting.”
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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