Ellison defends Paramount merger, argues he can ‘be trusted as a steward of CNN’

Media Ellison defends Paramount merger, argues he can ‘be trusted as a steward of CNN’ by Dominick Mastrangelo - 08/04/26 9:54 AM ET Link copied by Dominick Mastrangelo - 08/04/26 9:54 AM ET Link copied

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Media executive David Ellison is defending Paramount’s bid to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery and defending himself against accusations of implementing political bias at his media properties.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on Tuesday, Ellison said he “shouldn’t put a finger on the scale, especially on matters involving his own company.”

When nearly a dozen state attorneys general sued to block the Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery merger earlier this summer, he “stayed quiet” but “quickly learned such restraint has costs. While I was silent, others were happy to write my story for me. No more.”

“I believe this fight is not really about market share,” Ellison continued. “I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news. The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.”

Ellison said he has “regularly” voted for candidates of both parties and holds views that “would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans.”

When it comes to the news operations owned by companies he controls, he insisted “I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views.”

The legacy media filmmaking business is under deep threat from major tech companies like Netflix and Amazon, Ellison argued, writing that “Hollywood’s story can have a happy ending only when we connect with our audience.”

“It’s the audience — the American people — who have the final say in whether a movie succeeds or fails, whether a news organization thrives or withers and therefore whether our industry succeeds or fails,” he said. “I want to build a company with the strength and resources to deliver for those audiences who turn to us, for the storytellers who rely on us and for the country that dreamed this all up.”

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