What does the Paramount-WBD merger mean for CNN? (from CNN)

Viewers and readers of CNN might be wondering the same thing that CNN employees are asking right now: What will Paramount’s ownership mean?

Answers are in short supply. Paramount executives have privately talked about the prospect of combining its CBS News unit with CNN. They have also praised CNN’s newsgathering machine and global reach.

But CNN employees and viewers have serious concerns about whether Paramount CEO David Ellison will uphold the news network’s editorial independence amid severe political turbulence.

President Donald Trump, after all, has long sought to weaken CNN, and he viewed the recent bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery as another way to exert control. “It’s imperative that CNN be sold,” Trump said last December, signaling he favored Paramount’s takeover proposal.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/27/media/cnn-paramount-ellison-bari-weiss-wbd-merger