{"id":27580,"date":"2026-08-04T18:11:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27580"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:11:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:11:35","slug":"david-ellison-reveals-his-intentions-for-cnn-in-splashy-ny-times-op-ed-here-to-tell-it-straight-down-the-middle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27580","title":{"rendered":"David Ellison Reveals His Intentions for CNN in Splashy NY Times Op-Ed: \u2018Here to Tell It Straight Down the Middle\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5691097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5691097\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5691097\" src=\"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Untitled-design-2026-01-12T161501-891.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5691097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Paramount Skydance CEO <strong>David Ellison<\/strong> is making a public argument in defense of his company&#8217;s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 and claiming that opposition to the deal is rooted in whether he &#8220;can be trusted as a steward of Warner\u2019s CNN.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/04\/opinion\/david-ellison-paramount-warner-deal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>New York Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a> published Tuesday morning, Ellison went to bat for his blockbuster deal \u2014 which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/just-in-paramount-agrees-to-halt-wbd-mega-merger-until-june-2027-amid-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">currently on hold<\/a> until next June amid a lawsuit from state attorneys general who sued to block the merger.<\/p>\n<p>Ellison claimed that any business concerns surrounding the deal are not the primary reason it is being held up, but rather its concern about what he would do with CNN.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,&#8221; Ellison said. &#8220;Unfortunately, I can\u2019t give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ellison went on to write, &#8220;Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle. That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence. Our journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve \u2014 not to any party or cause.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Reports have indicated there is <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/cnn-staffers-fear-warner-bros-paramount-hurt-journalism-1236674738\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;palpable dread&#8221; inside CNN<\/a> about the prospect of Ellison taking over. And some big names at CNN have even gone public with their objections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly I\u2019m concerned, and I\u2019m not sure how much I\u2019m allowed to say about a corporate thing that\u2019s underway, but I am, obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned,\u201d CNN veteran <strong>Christiane Amanpour<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/christiane-amanpour-lays-out-her-fear-for-cnn-with-blistering-attack-on-david-ellisons-cbs-realignment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said at a forum<\/a> in London back in May. &#8220;And I\u2019m concerned based on what\u2019s happened to the other things that he\u2019s taken over already like CBS News right? I mean, do I have to list what\u2019s happening there?&#8230; I mean hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction potentially of <em>60 Minutes<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, Ellison made clear he would shake things up at CNN \u2014 citing a lack of public trust in media as the impetus for a rethink.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By Gallup\u2019s latest measure, just 28 percent of Americans trust the news \u2014 the lowest ever recorded,&#8221; Ellison said. &#8220;The temptation is to say the problem lies elsewhere. Our obligation is to look inward and say: We can do better. We are in a moment when Americans trust few institutions, but journalists haven\u2019t always helped their case by refusing to engage with critiques.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added, &#8220;Trust can\u2019t be argued back, but it can be earned back \u2014 story by story, day by day. In an age when so much of what fills our screens is machine-generated or engineered to enrage, journalism from real reporters matters more than ever. That is the work I intend to pay for, patiently, for a long time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/david-ellison-reveals-his-intentions-for-cnn-in-splashy-ny-times-op-ed-here-to-tell-it-straight-down-the-middle\/\">David Ellison Reveals His Intentions for CNN in Splashy NY Times Op-Ed: \u2018Here to Tell It Straight Down the Middle\u2019<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP) Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is making a public argument in defense of his company&#8217;s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 and claiming that opposition to the deal is rooted in whether he &#8220;can be trusted as a steward of Warner\u2019s CNN.&#8221; In a New York Times op-ed published Tuesday morning, Ellison went&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Untitled-design-2026-01-12T161501-891.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}