Trump enters Warner Bros. fight, says it’s ‘imperative that CNN be sold’

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump inserted himself directly into the battle for control of Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday, saying, “It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” while deriding the network’s news coverage.

Trump’s comments during a White House roundtable indicated that he favors Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, WBD for short — though he did not mention Paramount by name.

Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison with backing from his father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is the only company trying to buy all of WBD, including CNN. Netflix signed a deal last week to buy Warner Bros. and HBO, but not the news brand.

“You have some good companies bidding,” Trump said in response to New York Post reporter Geoff Earle, who asked, “What changes do you want to see at CNN under new leadership?”

The question itself raised eyebrows, as it was premised on an imminent leadership shakeup no one presently expects.

But earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that David Ellison recently “offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN.” The Journal cited “people familiar with the matter.” Both the Journal and the Post are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

CNN’s own White House reporters have also heard from sources about the president’s interest in the subject. Earlier this week, CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Kristen Holmes reported that “White House advisers have long speculated about who would buy Warner Bros. Discovery,” and the president has “told advisers he would support a leadership change at the cable network.”

Trump confirmed this on Wednesday, saying, “I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold.”

The president went on, claiming the news network spreads “poison” and “lies,” and emphasizing that he wouldn’t want CNN’s current leaders to stay in charge.

A CNN spokesperson declined to comment.

Trump has simultaneously sought CNN’s attention and savagely criticized its news coverage for the better part of a decade. The big difference now is that the network may or may not be part of a sale.

Under the plan WBD is pursuing, CNN’s corporate parent will split into two publicly traded halves. One, named Warner Bros., will house the movie studio and HBO, while the other, Discovery Global, will house CNN and cable channels, including TNT.

The split is expected to take effect next summer. Netflix then plans to buy the Warner Bros. half once the deal is reviewed by regulators in the US and other markets.

But Paramount, which lost out to Netflix in a bidding war, is still pursuing WBD by urging shareholders to accept its $30-per-share bid for the entire company.

The Warner board is expected to respond to Paramount’s hostile bid next week.

Concerns over independence

When the “for sale” sign publicly went up on WBD in October, one month after Paramount began making overtures, CNN journalists quietly worried whether an Ellison takeover would affect CNN’s editorial independence — especially the rigorous day-in, day-out coverage of all things Trump.

The concerns were largely speculative, though the firewall between the CNN newsroom and its parent company has been tested repeatedly in the past decade.

Ellison, who donated nearly $1 million to Joe Biden’s reelection campaign last year, shifted with the political winds this year and forged close ties with Trump’s inner circle. To win Trump administration approval of his Paramount takeover, Ellison agreed to install an ombudsman at CBS News and eliminate any DEI policies.

Ellison also acquired The Free Press, an “anti-woke” website, and appointed its co-founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News, with a mandate to restore trust in the network news division.

What some have seen as savvy business practices, others have viewed as media capitulation. WBD CEO David Zaslav may have been channeling the latter camp when he pointedly said, in front of both Ellison and Sarandos at a glitzy gala in October, “When the government controls the news, that is the end of democracy.”

The context was about Poland, but some onlookers believed it was also a shot at Paramount’s perceived appeasement of Trump.

Media reform groups and Democratic senators have raised alarms about the Ellison family’s growing power, pointing to Larry Ellison’s key role in Trump’s plan to transfer TikTok’s US operations to a group of American investors.

Trump and the elder Ellison go back years. Meanwhile, the younger Ellison’s efforts to ingratiate himself with the Trump administration are fresher, but have borne fruit. In October, Trump said of both father and son, “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine.”

At the same time, however, David Ellison has promoted the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes,” which frequently airs probes of Trump’s actions, and the animated sitcom “South Park,” which has ruthlessly satirized Trump and his administration this year.

The perception of a cozy corporate relationship certainly hasn’t stopped CBS News from airing and publishing tough coverage of the president, his political agenda or his business interests.

On Monday, Trump posted a screed against “60 Minutes” for interviewing Marjorie Taylor Greene, and claimed that since the Ellisons took control of Paramount, the program “has actually gotten WORSE!”

Trump’s highly personal and politicized comments about CBS — and now CNN — run the risk of diminishing the news brands in viewers’ minds, just as the perception of corporate meddling can harm their credibility.

In a CNBC interview on Monday morning, Ellison said of his aspirations to own CNN, “We’ve been really clear” about “what we want to do with news.”

“We want to build a scaled news service that is basically, fundamentally, in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70% of Americans that are in the middle,” Ellison said. For Paramount, that would be “doing well while doing good,” he said. “We believe in that business model and we believe it’s essential.”

When asked if the president “embraces the idea of you being the owner of CNN,” Ellison said, “We’ve had great conversations with the president about this,” before cautioning that “I don’t want to speak for him in any way, shape or form.”

Holding the line

Trump has a history of using corporate maneuvering to push for changes at CNN. In 2017, when AT&T sought to buy CNN and the rest of Time Warner, Trump and his aides tried to influence the network’s coverage, taking advantage of the government’s regulatory review of the deal. There was talk of potentially replacing CNN’s president to placate Trump, and talk of Murdoch trying to buy CNN to achieve the same result.

But Time Warner management defended CNN’s independence and did not interfere with or sell off the news channel. In fact, some sources said that Trump’s perceived meddling stiffened executives’ spines. When the Department of Justice sued to block the deal, AT&T and Time Warner fought back in court and won, and the merger went through.

Zaslav, the WBD CEO, has also spoken at length about defending and protecting CNN’s news operation. In turn, CNN CEO Mark Thompson has said that Zaslav has been true to his word.

Zaslav and the Warner board have been serious about “CNN’s editorial independence, including independence from them — allowing me to be where the buck stops in terms of editorial decision-making,” Thompson said in an interview with Business Insider in October.

“I would test any owner not on general perfection,” Thompson said, “but a commitment to editorial independence and a commitment to building.”

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