Veteran CNN journalistChristiane Amanpourpointed to the “ideological realignment” at CBS News on Wednesday as she expressed her “concern” at what her own network might look like under the oversight of incoming ownerDavid Ellison.
Speaking in London at the Truth Tellers Sir Harry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit on Wednesday, Amanpour voiced “concern” over Ellison’s influence on CBS News and what it potentially meant for CNN as his Paramount Skydance acquisition of the network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, movesforward.
The deal would place Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and Trump donorLarry Ellison, in control of the network where Amanpour has worked since 1983, alongside CBS News, which has already undergone sweeping changes under Paramount and Skydance leadership.
“[Defense Secretary]Pete Hegseth, the world’s favorite frat boy supremo, has said thatthe sooner David Ellison owns CNN, the better. And CNN has become this sort of lightning rod, hasn’t it, for this administration?” asked moderatorEmily Maitlis, as the topic of corporate ownership takeover came up. “Does it change what you do? Do you fear what is coming at you now in terms of a change?”
“Clearly I’m concerned, and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about a corporate thing that’s underway, but I am, obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned,” Amanpour said. “And I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already like CBS News right? I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there?”
Amanpour then delivered a blistering takedown of the CBS News under Ellison’s leadership.
“I mean hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction potentially of60 Minutes,” she said.
In a passionate case for60 Minutes, she praised the show as “one of literally the legacy” programs in American television journalism, adding: “Nobody can match60 Minutesfor a brilliant television magazine show that’s been doing hard news and cultural news, and for decades and decades.”
The comments come amid mounting scrutiny over the future editorial direction of major news outlets as billionaire-backed consolidation reshapes the media landscape.
Amanpour suggested staff at CNN were anxious about preserving newsroom autonomy under new ownership.
Source: Drudge Report
