So today’s headline — what’s going to happen to CNN? — has become the looming question of the summer in media circles.
Paramount is wrapping up its acquisition of CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and once that is done, we could see changes at CNN.
So, for now, there’s speculation.
Paramount owns CBS, which oversees CBS News. Will it be left alone after the merger? Will it fall under the umbrella of CBS News? If so, will CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss become the big boss, taking over CNN along with her CBS News duties? Will decisions at CNN be driven at all by politics, considering Paramount CEO David Ellison (and his father Larry) are allies of President Donald Trump?
And what might happen with Mark Thompson, the current boss of CNN?
In his latest piece for New York magazine, Tom Kludt writes, “Inside CNN, staffers fear that programming and personnel changes could be driven by politics as much as economics given how eager Donald Trump and his allies appear for Paramount CEO David Ellison to take control.”
Trump and others in his administration have made it known that they look forward to Paramount taking over CNN and the potential changes it could bring.
But for now, Kludt explains, Thompson is in charge of keeping CNN’s finely tuned news operation running smoothly, while tamping down fears about what might happen in the future — a future Thompson reportedly very much wants to be a part of.
Kludt wrote, “Given that Thompson cut his teeth in British journalism before ascending to the top jobs at the BBC, New York Times, and now CNN, it shouldn’t be surprising that he has reportedly told Paramount that he has no desire to cede responsibility. That came through at last month’s town hall, where Thompson described his ‘passion for CNN’ and said he felt ‘very protective of it.’”
During a question-and-answer session during that town hall, Kludt reported, Thompson warned against a major disruption to the network’s brand, which Thompson said was built on “credibility and trustworthiness.”
Thompson said, “It’s our difference, honestly, with some of our colleagues in American TV. They do some very good journalism, but you can’t look at some of our most famous and traditional competitors and say they take the exact same editorial approach to this question as we do. So I think it’s incredibly important.”
Join tens of thousands of journalists, media leaders and news enthusiasts who rely on The Poynter Report to stay ahead of the stories shaping the industry.
Subscribe for free
Thompson then reiterated his desire to remain at CNN, saying, “I’m totally committed to CNN and to its editorial values and standards. And so if the circumstances are right, I would love to continue to see this kind of transition into the future.”
What does he mean by “circumstances being right?” One can assume it’s if he is allowed to continue running the network as he sees fit without editorial interference from ownership.
Kludt’s story came one day after Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote, “CNN on Edge: Staffers Fear Bari Weiss Takeover as Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal Moves Closer to Finish Line.”
Interestingly, in his newsletter “Reliable Sources,” CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote, “These stories are always strange to read from the ‘inside’ because, well, it’s complicated, and if you ask ten different employees, you’ll hear ten different POVs about the pending merger.”
Stelter added, “CNN’s parent company has been bought, sold and merged over and over again. The news organization has always kept humming along. The word I would add to both NYMag and Variety’s stories is stability. Journalists are nosy and noisy and sometimes hard to manage, but they value stability just like people in every other line of work. Under CNN CEO Mark Thompson, the news organization feels stable. If it becomes unstable, viewers and readers will notice, and that’s ultimately a danger to CNN’s bottom line.”
One more thing to mention here. Status’ Jon Passantino writes that the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal is not out of the woods just yet in “Ellison’s Merger Danger Zone.”
Passantino writes, “While Ellison’s blockbuster acquisition sailed through the Justice Department with little resistance from a friendly Trump administration, a coalition of states led by California and New York is now preparing to sue as soon as next week to block the deal, Reuters first reported. At the same time, Oregon’s attorney general has asked a court to halt the mega-merger while it investigates Paramount’s lobbying of the Trump administration, and the U.K.’s media regulator said she was concerned about ‘a sufficient plurality of views in news media’ if the deal were to go through, saying she was ‘minded to intervene.’”
Passantino adds “the moves present the biggest threat yet” to the Paramount WBD deal.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump returned from the NATO summit in Turkey. But instead of flying his swanky Boeing 747-8 gifted to him by Qatar, Trump flew on the old Air Force One.
When asked about the switch, Trump said it was so the new plane could visit American military bases in Europe, allowing soldiers to see it. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman appeared on CNN and said, “It’s a little hard to believe that this is the only reason that that happened.”
There have been several reports that the switch was made over security precautions.
MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig, Priya Sridhar and Ken Dilanian reported, “President Donald Trump swapped out his new Qatari-gifted Air Force One for his flight from the NATO summit to the United Kingdom over concerns that the gifted aircraft lacks the secure communications systems and military defenses needed to safely manage a rapidly escalating conflict with Iran, according to two former national security officials familiar with the matter.”
The MS NOW story included this quote from White House communications director Steven Cheung: “The new Air Force One is a state-of-the-art aircraft that has been fitted with high-level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President and his staff. As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal— including distraction and misdirection— to address those threats.”
But on Thursday, Cheung tweeted, “Carol Leonnig is a liar and this article is complete Fake News. She has no idea what she is talking about. She says the White House declined to comment. Not true. We gave comment to the New York Times and many other outlets. Carol is not a real journalist. A complete fraud.”
Cheung’s criticism is puzzling because MS NOW did include a statement from him.
An MS NOW spokesperson told Mediaite’s Jennifer Bowers Bahney that the network stands by its reporting.
Other news outlets also reported on the security concerns. The New York Times’ Tyler Pager, Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt and Eric Lipton wrote that “people briefed on the new plane’s capabilities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, said the new plane does not have all the features of the older plane. The switch in the president’s aircraft when he departed Turkey was a precautionary measure made at the advice of the Secret Service and not because of a specific threat, they said.”
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
The Poynter Report is your daily dive into the world of media, packed with the latest news and insights. Get it delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday by signing up here. And don’t forget to tune into our biweekly podcast for even more.
Poynter’s fact-checking, watchdog reporting, and journalism training is possible because readers like you support us. Will you join our community of over 1,500 donors with a gift today?
The pending Paramount merger has fueled questions about CNN’s leadership, editorial autonomy and whether politics will shape its future
As backlogs grow, staffing shrinks and requests languish for years, journalists say records often arrive too late to hold anyone accountable
A federal judge dismissed Trump’s $3.8 billion defamation suit against the Post, finding insufficient evidence of actual malice
A PolitiFact analysis found that cryptocurrencies and other non-stock income accounted for most of Trump’s reported financial gains in 2025
ABC argues that if the FCC can decide what qualifies as news, it can also dictate which political candidates programs may interview
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Don't miss out on a year of learning.
Get the Poynter newsletter that’s right for you.
Support responsible news and fact-based information today!
About the Author
