What Happened at CBS News Is About to Happen at CNN
Everyone's focused on the merger. Almost nobody is talking about what comes next.
The same people who remade CBS News are now positioned to reshape CNN.
When David Ellison took control of CBS News, the changes came quickly. The new leadership had apparent animosity for old-school journalism. Journalists with decades of experience and shelves full of awards were cast into the outer darkness. Stories that could create political problems for the White House got less attention, less urgency, or disappeared altogether.
Now, according to new reporting, those same executives are looking at CNN. Bari Weiss is reportedly under consideration for a major leadership role there if the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition goes through. Some of CNN’s best-known journalists are already expressing concern privately, and in some cases publicly.
Legal analyst Paula Reid decided not to renew her contract, citing these concerns. She’s expected to show up on MS-NOW.
And what will Anderson Cooper do? He declined to continue on 60 Minutes because of the changes there. Will one of CNN’s highest-profile anchors jump ship when the Weiss crew comes in?
None of this means CNN will instantly become CBS News. But owners don’t spend tens of billions of dollars to leave a news organization exactly as they found it.
The warning signs are already familiar.
First comes the promise of modernization. Digital transformation. Winning back audiences. Breaking old habits. Then come the personnel changes. Then the editorial changes.
We’ve already watched this movie at CBS.
60 Minutes became the flash point, but it was never really about one program. It was about who gets to decide what journalism looks like. Veteran producers and correspondents found themselves replaced or marginalized as a new management team asserted control over editorial direction.
CNN has a different culture, different personalities, and different challenges. But if the new ownership believes the CBS strategy worked, there’s every reason to expect the same approach.
The merger itself is no longer moving as smoothly as it appeared just weeks ago. European regulators have extended their antitrust review after Paramount offered concessions to address competition concerns, and the British government is weighing its own intervention on media plurality grounds. There’s pending action from state AGs in the U.S.
None of that means the deal won't happen. In fact, most analysts still expect it to close. But the regulatory hurdles are growing, and every delay pushes back the timetable for whatever comes next at CNN. And the deal is facing a September deadline.
But the biggest reason to think events could unfold differently has nothing to do with CNN.
It has to do with Washington.
The political environment appears to be shifting. President Trump has become historically unpopular. Some Republicans are willing to challenge him publicly. Even some former MAGA loyalists have begun breaking ranks. His administration has projected an image of disorder on issues both consequential and symbolic—from the Iran war to the Reflecting Pool.
That may help explain something else.
Recently, CBS News has aired stories that would surprise anyone who concluded the network had become a Trump mouthpiece. Now, I don’t see that as evidence that CBS has rediscovered its old newsroom culture. I see it as evidence that the political winds may be changing. And like all big business entities do, they’re tacking with the wind.
We can all make our predictions, but no one really knows what CNN will look like a year after the merger.
Hell, we don’t even know what the country will look like.