<\/p>\n
This image taken with a smartphone shows the exterior of the Warner Bros. Discovery headquarters in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n
Guido Neira\/AP Photo\/Guido Neira<\/p>\n
CNN has a new owner: Skydance.<\/p>\n
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After a tumultuous, roughly yearlong process, Skydance-owned Paramount closed its $81 billion buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday. And beyond Hollywood, the mega merger brings two titans of the American TV news landscape \u2014 CBS and CNN \u2014 under the same roof.<\/p>\n
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On the eve of the deal’s completion, Skydance confirmed that CNN’s Mark Thompson will stay on as editor-in-chief of the network \u2014 separate from CBS, where Bari Weiss remains at the helm. But how the combined company’s news operations will look farther down the road are yet to be seen.<\/p>\n
Politics are also top of mind. The billionaire family of Skydance CEO David Ellison has a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump \u2014 who has been far from shy about targeting coverage he deems unfavorable from both CNN and CBS. Last month, his administration moved to bar CNN from the White House. And the network’s new ownership arrives as coverage ramps up less than a month ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Ellison has pledged to maintain editorial independence. Under a recent settlement with states that challenged the merger, the company agreed to establish new monitoring of CBS and CNN by forming a \u201cNews Editorial Independence Board\u201d within 180 days of completing its Warner acquisition.<\/p>\n
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Still, Skydance’s corporate leaders are to choose who sits on this board. And critics are bracing for potentially deepening editorial turmoil.<\/p>\n
CNN’s editor-in-chief remains in top spot<\/p>\n
Skydance announced on Monday that Thompson \u2014 who has been CNN’s chair and CEO since 2023 \u2014 would continue to lead the network. In a memo to staff published by<\/a> Business Insider and other outlets, Thompson said he had \u201creal confidence\u201d Ellison and other Skydance leaders \u201cwill fully support the principle and practice of the kind of independent news that CNN has always stood for.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson acknowledged that all the specifics of how CNN would operate have yet to be finalized \u2014 but said he planned to lead the network \u201cas an independent Editor-in-Chief with the same responsibilities and prerogatives that I have now.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Paramount-owned CBS News and its hallmark \u201c60 Minutes\u201d program have already seen editorial turmoil since coming under Skydance ownership last year. For critics of those changes, news of Thompson staying at CNN marked a meaningful safeguard \u2014 but some experts cautioned that time will tell.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth CNN and CBS News will ultimately sit under the same corporate ownership, and ownership can exert influence in ways that are much more subtle than directly telling an editor what stories to cover,” said J. Christopher Hamilton, an associate professor at Syracuse University. Decisions about everything from budgets to personnel “can gradually affect the editorial character of a news organization.\u201d<\/p>\n The long-term question \u201cis whether that independence remains intact when it becomes costly or uncomfortable for the parent company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n New editorial monitoring<\/p>\n According to court documents, the new editorial independence body will include five \u201cactive or retired\u201d journalists with at least 10 years of experience.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Still, those members will be appointed by and report to the combined company’s board of directors. Ellison is remaining chairman of what is now the combined Skydance.<\/p>\n \u201cThis board, while it is termed independent, it is going to be filled with members appointed by Paramount,\u201d said Megan Duncan, an associate professor of journalism at Virginia Tech’s School of Communication. She predicts that will \u201clessen the teeth of this board.”<\/p>\n The settlement outlines some additional criteria for board members, including that no more than two members be affiliated with the same political party, and that no government employees be appointed to the board or have oversight over who is on it.<\/p>\n According to court documents, the responsibilities of the board include establishing a set of \u201cguiding editorial principles\u201d based on CBS and CNN’s standards and practices, resolving \u201cany disputes\u201d between both employees at the two networks and corporate management and \u201cmonitoring adherence to ethical journalism\u201d overall for coverage across the U.S. specifically.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Members are to serve for terms of three years, although the board of the combined Paramount-Warner can still remove them for cause.<\/p>\n \u2018Disappointed that we could not do more\u2019<\/p>\n Top state prosecutors like California Attorney General Rob Bonta \u2014 who led the coalition of 12 states that initially sought to block the Paramount-Warner merger \u2014 said when announcing the deal on Sept. 21 that the board will help \u201censure independent, objective, fact-based reporting at CBS News and CNN.”<\/p>\n Still, others wished the settlement could’ve gone further, including Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who wanted a full divestiture of CNN and CBS and said he was \u201cdeeply disappointed that we could not do more.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Meanwhile, while joining the rest of the states in the wider settlement, Colorado and Washington notably declined to sign off on the proposed editorial board terms.<\/p>\n As part of a separate settlement with Hollywood writers, the Writers Guild of America said that Paramount had also agreed to prohibit writer layoffs at CBS News Broadcast for the next five years.<\/p>\n Ellison, meanwhile, previously promised that editorial independence \u201cwill absolutely be maintained\u201d under Paramount ownership.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s maintained at CBS. It\u2019ll be maintained at CNN,\u201d Ellison told CNBC\u2019s \u201cSquawk on the Street\u201d<\/a> in March, while noting that his company wants to speak to \u201cthe 70%\u201d of viewers who he said identify as center-left or center-right. And in an August opt-ed published by the New York Times<\/a> amid the height of Paramount’s antitrust battle with 12 states, he reiterated that \u201cour journalists will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve \u2014 not to any party or cause.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Trump and CNN<\/p>\n Last month, Trump barred CNN \u2014 as well as Politico and MS NOW \u2014 from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage and \u201cfake news.\u201d All three outlets have since filed a joint lawsuit, and are continuing to fight their case in court.<\/p>\n CNN has long attracted ire from the Republican president, and members of his administration have also made their opinions clear about the network’s future ownership. Shortly after Trump joined Israel to launch the war against Iran earlier this year, for example, the White House attacked CNN for its coverage \u2014 and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that \u201cthe sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n CBS has faced its own attacks from Trump. Skydance\u2019s 2025 acquisition of Paramount was approved by the Federal Communications Commission just weeks after the company agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over editing at the network’s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This image taken with a smartphone shows the exterior of the Warner Bros. 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