With Donald Trump publicly declaring that it’s “imperative that CNN be sold” as part of any takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, signaling he favors Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for the studio giant, Paramount chairman David Ellison has tried to temper the president’s boiling rage over another matter involving his company.
In the aftermath of Trump fuming that Paramount’s management was “NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP” following a 60 Minutes interview with Trump ally-turned-foe Marjorie Taylor Greene, the New York Post reported that Ellison and his father – ultrawealthy Oracle founder and close Trump pal Larry Ellison – have been “scrambling to do damage control with the White House.”
Meanwhile, following his $108 billion public tender offer after Warner Bros. had accepted Netflix’s merger proposal, the younger Ellison acknowledged that he wanted to combine CNN with CBS News, which has recently come under the editorial control of anti-woke crusader Bari Weiss. On top of that, he admitted that he’d personally spoken to Trump about it, who has long raged about the cable news network and labeled it “fake news.”
“By the way, we’ve had great conversations with the president about this,” Ellison told CNBC this week. Following that stunning admission, the Wall Street Journal would report that Ellison “offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN.”
Pretty much at the same time that the Ellisons submitted their hostile bid for WBD this week, which includes investments from Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and the sovereign wealth funds of several Middle Eastern countries, the president took to his social media platform to melt down over 60 Minutes. During her sitdown with the show, Greene claimed Trump was “directly fueling” death threats against her and her family.
Besides raging about the show giving a platform to “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Green turns Brown under stress!)” and blasting 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, Trump appeared to take direct aim at Ellison, whom he has repeatedly praised in recent months following the politically tainted Paramount-Skydance merger.
“My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!” Trump groused. “Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE! Oh well, far worse things can happen.”
Speaking to reporters later that afternoon, Trump appeared to still have some residual anger towards the Ellisons over the interview, suggesting they weren’t on friendly terms anymore.
“I know the companies very well. I know what they are doing. But I have to see… what percentage of market they have. We have to see the Netflix percentage of market, Paramount percentage of market,” he said when asked if we would be involved in approving a Warner deal. “I mean, none of them are particularly great friends of mine. I want to do what’s right.”
According to the New York Post’s Charlie Gasparino, the Ellisons then began reaching out to Trump administration officials to make it clear that they were left “mostly in the dark about the controversial interview” before it aired on Sunday night.
“Sources say Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has told people close to Trump he was unaware of the broadcast until the day it ran, as was Jeff Shell, president of Paramount Skydance, and Weiss,” Gasparino noted.
“They’re saying those guys went rogue and when Paramount Skydance found out about it, they were caught flatfooted,” a source told the Post.
It appears the Ellisons’ damage-control tactics have worked with Trump, and the president seems fully on board with Paramount’s acquisition of WBD. While Netflix’s agreement would see CNN spun off into a separate company along with the bulk of Warner’s other cable properties, Paramount wants to purchase all of WBD’s assets – including the cable news channel that Trump openly despises.
“It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” Trump declared from the White House on Wednesday, calling the network’s current leaders a “disgrace” while accusing CNN of spreading “poison” to viewers.
“I think any deal, it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately, but I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people,” the president added. “I don’t think that should be allowed to continue.”
In the wake of Trump’s Wednesday declaration, the Wall Street Journal reported that the president “has told allies he is open to considering a new deal for Warner in which CNN is completely sold off from the business and not spun off into Discovery Global as planned.”
On top of that, the the Journal noted that Trump has privately “said that CNN should be run by people he believes are friendlier toward him and the Republican Party.” The elder Ellison, who has long been a loyal supporter of the president, recently discussed with White House officials the possibility of firing CNN anchors that the president dislikes if Paramount were to purchase Warner.
“He’s looking to exert maximum pressure,” Gasparino additionally reported of Trump’s mindset throughout the sale process.
Meanwhile, Paramount’s spokespeople have remained quiet throughout this week’s saga.
As Status News’ Oliver Darcy pointed out this week, a “chief executive openly signaling that he’d reorient a newsroom to appease a sitting president would be a five-alarm corporate scandal.” However, “Paramount hasn’t uttered a syllable” and declined to comment when approached about David Ellison’s conversations with Trump and White House officials.
The Independent has reached out to both Paramount and CBS News for this story, but has yet to hear back.
