Six months after reports claimed the Ellisons promised President Donald Trump a CNN overhaul if Paramount Skydance won the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, the media conglomerate has formally denied the allegation.
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that, as the WBD bidding war dragged on last winter, David Ellison’s billionaire father reached out to Trump and teased an overhaul of CNN under Paramount Skydance. Per the outlet’s sources, neither Trump nor the elder Ellison are a “fan of the cable news channel, believing it is biased toward liberal news and against the administration.”
This reporting followed a similar one that surface in December, which claimed the younger Ellison told multiple Trump administration officials he would demand sweeping changes to CNN if he acquired WBD’s assets. The month prior, it had been reported that the Oracle founder also spoke to a White House official about axing CNN hosts Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar should Paramount purchase the news network’s parent company, WBD.
However, a spokesperson for Paramount went on the record and shut down this reporting on Tuesday, noting in a statement to WSJ, “No commitments from either David or Larry Ellison have been made to any government body, State AG or federal agency regarding the future of CNN or any other news property, other than the goal to deliver truth-based journalism.”
Additionally, a White House spokesperson told the outlet: “President Trump has consistently maintained that he was neutral to all parties throughout the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding process.”
Paramount’s statement comes two weeks after David Ellison promised editorial independence for CBS News amid Bari Weiss’ troubling tenure, including the shakeup at “60 Minutes.” The vow was notable as it came as the Paramount Skydance CEO is said to be looking for a new business executive to help lead efforts after the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger.
An individual with knowledge of CBS’s thinking told TheWrap earlier this month that “there is no intention” for Weiss to run the combined news operation.
