Paramount CEO David Ellison said he believes the antitrust litigation filed by 12 states and the Writers Guild of America isn’t about market share but about “whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN.”
Ellison, in an op-ed published by the New York Times Tuesday, noted, “There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.” He reiterated his pledge that CNN would remain independent under a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery and that its journalists “will continue to answer to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause.”
“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 wrote.
The Paramount chief continued, “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. These were founding principles for both CNN and CBS News, for legends like Ted Turner and Edward R. Murrow, and it is exactly that kind of independence that has always fueled the greatness of ’60 Minutes.'”
