Ellison Claims He'll Protect CNN

(In the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan, the progressive candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, barely beat the moderate, Haley Stevens, by just under 15,000 votes or about 1% of the over 1.5 million votes cast.)

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Corporate takeovers are difficult for journalists to cover. Most of us lack the necessary educational or professional background, and the sheer scope of these deals makes them hard to cover effectively.

These problems become magnified when they involve media institutions. So it is with billionaire David Ellison’s proposed takeover of Paramount/Warner Brothers, which includes two major news channels, CBS and CNN.

Warning signs include Ellison’s close friendship with Trump, who is particularly critical of CNN and has indicated that he’d like Ellison to get rid of CNN anchors that he dislikes.

Both of Trump’s terms in office have led to relentless attacks on media. The overall effect has weakened the ability for some news organization — notably CBS — to provide checks on Trump’s quest for authoritarian power.

CNN remains one of the only national networks that provides relatively balanced coverage of Trump’s abuses of power, which are, of course, rampant.

While CNN is far from perfect, and I could detail a long list of its shortcomings, it remains the largest and most effective network in the U.S. critical of Trump.

It is not a stretch to say that the health of our democracy now depends on CNN’s continued ability to do so.

In an op-ed in the Times, Ellison is saying all the right things in an effort to get regulators to approve his takeover:

“The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.

“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.’”

Can we take Ellison at his word? Should we?

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• David Ellison: In Defense of the Paramount-Warner Deal (NYT)

• Careful what you bid for: The Ellisons’ Paramount/WBD deal is slipping toward a costly legal and financial cliff (Fortune)

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