CNN has a new owner: Sky Dance.
After a tumultuous process, which lasts about a yearSkydance-owned Paramount completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. on Tuesday. Discovery for $81 billion. And beyond Hollywood, the mega-merger brings together two titans of the American television landscape – CBS and CNN – under the same roof.
On the eve of the deal closing, Skydance confirmed that CNN’s Mark Thompson would remain as editor-in-chief of the channel, separate from CBS, where Bari Weiss remains at the helm. But it remains to be seen what the merged company’s news operations will look like in the longer term.
Politics is also a priority. The billionaire family of Skydance CEO David Ellison enjoys a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump – who has not hesitated to target coverage he considers unfavorable from CNN and CBS. Last month, his administration decided to bar CNN from the White House. And the new owner of the network arrives as coverage increases less than a month before the 2026 midterm elections.
Ellison is committed to maintaining his editorial independence. Under a recent settlement with the States which challenged the merger, the company agreed to establish new oversight of CBS and CNN by forming a “News Editorial Independence Council” within 180 days of completing its acquisition of Warner.
Still, Skydance executives must choose who sits on that board. And critics are bracing for potentially growing editorial turmoil.
CNN editor-in-chief stays ahead
Skydance announced Monday that Thompson – who served as chairman and CEO of CNN since 2023 – would continue to run the network. In a note to staff published by Reporting to Business Insider and other media outlets, Thompson said he had “real confidence” that Ellison and other Skydance executives would “fully support the principle and practice of the type of independent reporting that CNN has always stood for.”
Thompson acknowledged that all the details of CNN’s operation have not yet been finalized – but said he plans to lead the network “as an independent editor-in-chief with the same responsibilities and prerogatives that I currently have.”
Paramount-owned CBS News and its trademark “60 Minutes” program have already experienced editorial troubles since becoming the property of Skydance last year. For critics of these changes, the news of Thompson remaining at CNN is a significant safeguard — but some experts cautioned that time will tell.
“CNN and CBS News will ultimately be under the same ownership, and ownership can exert a much more subtle influence than directly telling an editor what stories to cover,” said J. Christopher Hamilton, an associate professor at Syracuse University. Decisions about everything from budgets to personnel “can gradually affect the editorial character of a news organization.”
The long-term question “is whether that independence remains intact when it becomes costly or uncomfortable for the parent company,” he said.
New editorial monitoring
According to court documents, the new editorial independence body will include five “active or retired” journalists with at least 10 years of experience.
However, these members will be appointed and report to the board of directors of the combined company. Ellison remains president of what is now Skydance Group.
“This board of directors, although it is characterized as independent, will be composed of members appointed by Paramount,” said Megan Duncan, associate professor of journalism at Virginia Tech’s school of communication. She predicts this will “weaken the power of this board.”
The agreement sets out certain additional criteria for board members, including that no more than two members be affiliated with the same political party and that no government employee be appointed to the board or exercise control over board members.
According to court documents, the board’s responsibilities include establishing a set of “guiding editorial principles” based on CBS and CNN standards and practices, resolving “any disputes” between employees of the two networks and company management, and “monitoring compliance with ethical journalism” in general for coverage in the United States in particular.
Members must serve a three-year term, although the Paramount-Warner Group board of directors can still remove them for cause.
“Disappointed not to be able to do more”
Top state prosecutors, like California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the 12-state coalition that initially sought to block the Paramount-Warner merger – said when announcing the deal on September 21 that the board would help “ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting at CBS News and CNN.”
Yet others would have liked the settlement to go further, including Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who wanted a total divestiture of CNN and CBS and said he was “deeply disappointed that we couldn’t do more.”
Meanwhile, while joining the rest of the states in a broader agreement, Colorado and Washington notably refused to endorse the terms proposed to the drafting committee.
In a separate agreement with Hollywood writers, the Writers Guild of America said Paramount also agreed to ban layoffs of writers at CBS News Broadcast for the next five years.
Ellison, meanwhile, had previously promised that editorial independence “would absolutely be maintained” under Paramount ownership.
“It’s maintained by CBS. It will be maintained by CNN,” Ellison said. CNBC’s “Squawk in the Street” in March, while specifying that his company wants to address the “70%” of viewers who, according to him, identify as center-left or center-right. And in an August opt-ed published by the New York Times At the height of Paramount’s antitrust battle with 12 states, he reiterated that “our journalists will continue to respond to the facts and to all the people they serve — not to any party or cause.”
Trump and CNN
Last month, Trump CNN banned – as well as Politico and MS NOW – from the White House due to what he called unfavorable media coverage and “fake news.” Since then, the three points of sale have filed a joint complaintand are keep fighting their case before the court.
CNN has long drawn the Republican president’s ire, and members of his administration have also made clear their opinions on the channel’s future ownership. Shortly after Trump joined Israel in launching war against Iran earlier this year, for example, the White House attacked CNN for its coverage — and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over this network, the better.”
CBS has faced its own attacks from Trump. Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount in 2025 was approved by the Federal Communications Commission just weeks after the company agreed pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit concerning the editing of the channel’s “60 Minutes” show.
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