CNN insiders shredded an op-ed by a MAGA billionaire who's trying to take over their parent company, according to a media reporter.
During an episode of the Status podcast Power Lines, Oliver Darcy, who reports on media, said that CNN staffers and journalists panned a New York Times op-ed by Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison, who is trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Ellison controls CBS, which has seen a MAGA makeover of its news programs under Bari Weiss and cut the Trump-critical The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The Paramount chief's guest essay marked his first public defense of the deal, which a dozen states sued to block. A judge halted it until a trial set for March, but if it's greenlit, Ellison would take control of CNN. Darcy said that he spoke with more than a dozen people inside CNN about whether the essay swayed them, and they responded with a "resounding no."
"We all have eyes and ears and see what's happening at CBS," one employee told Darcy. "You can't just write an op-ed and erase that."
Another called out Weiss, whose leadership has seen the gutting of '60 Minutes' and the ratings of CBS Mornings and CBS Evening News plummet.
"The thing David Ellison seems to be missing is the wild mismanagement and disrespect that Bari has displayed at 60 and CBS," the CNN staffer told Darcy. "We see it, and we do not want it here."
A third CNN staffer told Darcy that the changes Ellison directed at CBS News "eroded the newsroom's trust," and concluded, "Free pressifying CNN is not the answer."
In the op-ed, Ellison wrote that he does not wish to bend newsrooms to his views, and said he wants them to reflect "the whole world, not one side of it." Darcy read that line as signaling which side Ellison believes is underrepresented.
"I don't think he believes that liberals are underrepresented," Darcy said. "I think he believes that conservatives are underrepresented in media."
Darcy also noted that Paramount didn't respond to his request for comment.
