CNN CEO Mark Thompson asks staff not to panic over potential Paramount merger

“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Thompson wrote in an email to staff yesterday evening (via Deadline). “And secondly let’s not forget our duty to our audience. We’re still near the start of what is already an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad, one that will culminate with critical U.S. midterm elections and who knows what else.” 

Of course, some of that staff is jumping to reasonable conclusions. “A Paramount WBD merger is a disaster for the people who work at both companies, and if Bari Weiss takes control of CNN, it will be the end of the global network Ted Turner founded,” one anonymous CNN producer told The Guardian in an article published this morning. “I don’t think that’s hyperbolic.” (While this news was breaking, Weiss tweeted that she was watching Ross Douthat and Stephen Pinker “debate God” at a Free Press-sponsored event, and that she “hear[s] there’s some news?”) It’s not just the CNN side of the merger that has misgivings. Other quotes The Guardian managed to get from CBS staffers included “Fuck, fuck, fuck” and “Well, fuck.” 

The sale of Warner Bros. Discovery does still need a good amount of regulatory approval to move forward. While the Trump administration and its cronies have been clear that they wanted Paramount to win over Netflix, the size of the deal means that it will need to be approved by European regulators, reports the BBC. It’s not immediately clear when that might happen.