CNN Boss Grilled by Staffers Over MAGA-Curious Takeover

The boss of CNN has admitted he has no idea about a key MAGA ally’s plans for the network after a controversial takeover goes through.

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CEO Mark Thompson, 69, addressed staff on a Zoom call, days after Paramount Skydance struck a deal with state attorneys general that removed the last legal obstacle to its merger with CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

“But I’ll tell you what I can.”

David Ellison, 43, son of MAGA tech billionaire Larry Ellison, is the CEO of Paramount Skydance. The company formed after a controversial merger between Ellison’s interests and the CBS parent company last year, which has since resulted in an explosive conservative overhaul at that network.

Thompson’s call with CNN staffers ran for roughly 90 minutes and included a 25-minute Q&A as employees pressed him and other executives over the fate of the network’s leadership and editorial independence.

The CEO suggested he does not know whether Paramount-Skydance even wants him to remain in charge. “How Paramount Skydance wants to run news is not something known to me,” he said. “I want to be involved if I can be useful. If I’m thought to be useful by my new bosses, and certain things I believe in can be supported by them, we can go forward on that basis.”

Status had earlier reported that David Ellison had not contacted Thompson after the announcement of Monday’s settlement with the state attorneys general. Thompson nevertheless applauded Ellison’s handling of the suit, which argued the proposed merger violated antitrust law by significantly reducing competition in the entertainment industry.

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“It is worth saying, hats off,” he said, calling “the speed with which this has been achieved [is] an astonishing achievement.” He sounded similarly upbeat about a planned five-person panel overseeing editorial standards across both newsrooms.

Staffers remain deeply anxious. One concern, Status reported, is Bari Weiss, whom Ellison picked to lead CBS News last year and whose changes at the helm of that network have been likened to a hostile takeover.

The bloodletting at CBS has hit its flagship investigative program 60 Minutes the hardest. Weiss ousted executive producer Tanya Simon in May, then fired veteran correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega before handing the show over to tech journalist Nick Bilton, who has no TV experience.

Scott Pelley followed them out the door days later after publicly confronting Bilton and accusing Weiss of “murdering” the show. The network has since filled the vacant desks with several controversial hires, including conservative Catholic opinion writer Ross Douthat and Sir Trevor Phillips, who was suspended from the British Labour Party over alleged Islamophobia in 2020 before being readmitted the following year.

Thompson reportedly lashed out at some of the coverage of carnage at CBS. “I think there’s an awful lot of people out there whose business model, in the way they cover media, is kind of hysteria,” he said. “I mean, they’re trying to usually get subscribers, and the more hysterical and wild the rumors, maybe the more subscribers they get.”

He also cautioned employees against assuming that Paramount would combine the two news operations. His staff was not convinced. “We’re supposed to be reassured by the guy who just said, ‘I literally don’t know what their plan is?’” as one person put it.

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