CBS Boss Frantically Backtracks After Sucking Up to Trump

Politics admin August 4, 2026 0 Comments

CBS Boss Frantically Backtracks After Sucking Up to Trump

The Trump-charming boss of CBS is now desperately backtracking after spending months sucking up to the president.

David Ellison, the 43-year-old chief executive of Paramount Skydance, attempted to push back against fears that his company’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery would lead to a partisan overhaul of CNN. In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Tuesday, the billionaire nepo baby insisted his personal politics will not dictate newsroom decisions, responding directly to an antitrust lawsuit that threatens to torpedo the $111 billion mega-merger.

A 12-state coalition, led by California and New York, filed suit last month in a bid to block the deal, alleging it would unlawfully reduce competition across basic cable and movie distribution. The Writers Guild of America slapped the media giants with a separate suit the following day, warning the consolidation would devastate the market for writers.

Ellison, whose father, Larry, is the seventh richest person in the world, argued that the legal challenge seeking to end the merger is less about market share and more about his political leanings. “The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,” Ellison wrote, addressing his intense campaign to win over President Donald Trump.

Ellison was negotiating an $8 billion acquisition of Paramount last July when the company paid $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. The Federal Communications Commission then swiftly approved Ellison’s deal, and soon after the new Paramount Skydance bought the digital media outlet The Free Press for a staggering $150 million and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, 42, as editor in chief of CBS News, turning its coverage more MAGA friendly.

Two days before the White House Correspondents’ Association’s dinner this spring, Ellison hosted a dinner for Trump at the Institute for Peace. Ellison invited CBS News correspondents and executives, including Weiss, whose tenure at CBS News has been tumultuous, marked by rounds of firings, cratering ratings, and head-scratching hires.

Despite these moves, Ellison claimed a CNN under his ownership would remain untouched. “Unfortunately, I can’t 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,” he wrote.

“I believe that news should be based on facts and truth. Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle,” Ellison added. “That 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—not to any party or cause.”

Addressing his previous silence on the court battle, Ellison admitted that staying quiet had backfired. “While I was silent, others were happy to write my story for me,” he wrote. “No more.”

The plea rings hollow given the overhaul at CBS, where Weiss caused dismay when she shelved a 60 Minutes episode on El Salvador’s CECOT prison after administration officials declined to be interviewed. Veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi blasted the move in an email to colleagues, calling the administration’s refusal to participate “a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.”

Longtime anchor Scott Pelley was also ousted following a fiery staff clash with Weiss and her new executive producer, Nick Bilton, a TV news virgin. Pelley accused leadership of “murdering” the show, writing in a farewell statement that network heads were sacrificing 60 Minutes “apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

Trump, meanwhile, has publicly praised Ellison while calling for CNN to be swallowed up. During a speech at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in late July during the second WHCA dinner, Trump bragged that Ellison promised to rename the annual press event the “Trump White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”

The cozy relationship has drawn legal fire from investors. Paramount shareholders filed a suit alleging the Ellisons struck a “corrupt” side deal to reshape CNN in exchange for regulatory backing. Paramount denied that any promises or deals were made to the administration.