With the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. complete, the amalgamated company, Skydance, now has control of both CNN and CBS News. Some seem happy CNN promised to maintain editorial independence; others worry the network could take the same controversial rightward shift as CBS.
Skydance CEO David Ellison reportedly asked Thompson to stay at CNN, and the new company “confirmed that CNN’s Mark Thompson will stay on as editor-in-chief of the network — separate from CBS, where Bari Weiss remains at the helm,” said The Associated Press. But how the “combined company’s news operations will look farther down the road is yet to be seen.”
Ellison has pledged to maintain CNN’s editorial freedom, but he also has a “cozy relationship with President Donald Trump — who has been far from shy about targeting coverage he deems unfavorable from both CNN and CBS.”
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Because of this closeness, many at CNN seem relieved that Thompson will stay aboard. “That sound you hear is a giant sigh of relief from the halls of Techwood,” a CNN producer told The Guardian, referring to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters. Even so, the “completion of the merger raises uncomfortable questions about media capture in the United States,” said the Columbia Journalism Review. CNN under Skydance “likely won’t replicate Fox News, but it will look to stay in Trump’s good graces.”
For CNN, Thompson remaining on board is the “best-case scenario under its new owners,” said the Poynter Institute. At the network, some “uncertainty about the new ownership has inflamed anxieties” about a potential Bari Weiss takeover, said The New York Times, which was especially true for CNN’s most famous anchor, Anderson Cooper, who “told colleagues that he did not want to work for her.”
What next?
Thompson’s staying on will “at least initially, establish a boundary around Weiss’ authority,” said The Wrap. It may also “ease some concerns among lawmakers, regulators and other merger critics about Ellison’s potential influence over CNN.” But just because the two media powerhouses appear separate, it “does not necessarily mean CNN and CBS News will remain editorially distinct over the long term.”
