Billionaire who hired Bari Weiss to run CBS says CNN will remain independent

In an interview with CNBC, Ellison said, as he dodged questions about job loss, “We absolutely believe in the independence that needs to be maintained, obviously, for those incredible journalists, and we want to support that going forward.” Less than two weeks after he attended the longest State Of The Union speech in history as Senator Lindsay Graham’s guest, Ellison says that Paramount is “going to invest in the news business. And we think this transaction will be a positive for both CBS News and CNN.” Of course, the deal has yet to undergo the regulatory evaluation, which is what led to a conservative ombudsman at CBS. Who knows, maybe this time, Ellison won’t cave to every one of FCC chair Brendan Carr’s demands. But if he wants to spend $110 billion to buy CNN, he’ll probably have to.