Renowned CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour took a swipe at Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison for the chaos at CBS News under his leadership — in anticipation of him moving to control CNN as well.
According to The Daily Beast, "The veteran chief international anchor, 68, faces life under Trump-friendly nepo baby Ellison, 43, after Paramount Skydance secured shareholder approval last month for its $111 billion acquisition of CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal ... would hand Ellison, son of Donald Trump megadonor and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, control of two of America’s biggest newsrooms."
Amanpour made her thoughts on this clear at the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit in London.
“Clearly I’m concerned, and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about a corporate thing that’s underway, but I am obviously as a person, as a journalist with a record — yeah, concern," she said. "And I’m concerned based on what’s happened. And I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already, like CBS News. Do I have to list what’s happening there? I mean, hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction, potentially, of 60 Minutes.”
Since the makeover of CBS that also saw conservative thinker Bari Weiss put in charge of editorial duties, the network has lurched between controversy after controversy as well as a crash of ratings.
Paramount Skydance's acquisition of CNN is still subject to regulatory approval, and while it is widely expected the Trump administration will greenlight it, a review by California and European Union regulators, as well as an antitrust lawsuit by streaming subscribers, could complicate the process.