David Ellison Reveals His Intentions for CNN in Splashy NY Times Op-Ed: ‘Here to Tell It Straight Down the Middle’

(Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is making a public argument in defense of his company’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — and claiming that opposition to the deal is rooted in whether he “can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN.”

In a New York Times op-ed published Tuesday morning, Ellison went to bat for his blockbuster deal — which is currently on hold until next June amid a lawsuit from state attorneys general who sued to block the merger.

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.

“There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,” Ellison said. “Unfortunately, I can’t 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.”

Ellison went on to write, “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 — not to any party or cause.”

Reports have indicated there is “palpable dread” inside CNN about the prospect of Ellison taking over. And some big names at CNN have even gone public with their objections.

“Clearly I’m concerned, and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about a corporate thing that’s underway, but I am, obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned,” CNN veteran Christiane Amanpour said at a forum in London back in May. “And I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already like CBS News right? I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there?… I mean hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction potentially of 60 Minutes.”

Still, Ellison made clear he would shake things up at CNN — citing a lack of public trust in media as the impetus for a rethink.

“By Gallup’s latest measure, just 28 percent of Americans trust the news — the lowest ever recorded,” Ellison said. “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’t always helped their case by refusing to engage with critiques.”

He added, “Trust can’t be argued back, but it can be earned back — 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.”

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