CNN has spent years insisting it is the gold standard of broadcast journalism.
Now the man who may soon own it just let something slip that has the whole building buzzing.
And a top Paramount executive’s three-word description of David Ellison’s plans for CNN left staffers at the network’s Hudson Yards headquarters genuinely unsettled.
What Delrahim Said at the Politico Conference
Makan Delrahim, Paramount’s chief legal officer, made the comment at Politico’s California Agenda conference recently. In a short clip posted by CNN’s chief media analyst Brian Stelter, Delrahim said, “What David wants to do, with CNN is, I’ll refer you to his op-ed in the New York Times. He wants to bring it back to news.”
Three words. “Back to news.” That’s what set off the alarm bells inside CNN.
Delrahim hasn’t clarified or elaborated on the remark, but it raised eyebrows among journalists given that CNN has been a global news brand for 46 years. “Back” to news implies otherwise and echoes a familiar right-wing talking point, according to Mediaite’s framing of the reaction.
Whether you find that framing convincing probably depends on whether you’ve actually watched CNN for the last decade. Plenty of viewers — and not just conservatives — have noticed the network drifting from straight reporting into something that more closely resembles round-the-clock anti-Trump propaganda. Saying the quiet part out loud apparently still carries a cost.
Delrahim is a Trump administration veteran, having served as the DOJ antitrust chief during Trump’s first term. He has been Paramount’s chief legal officer since October 2025. So the man making this statement isn’t some random corporate lawyer — he ran antitrust enforcement for the United States government and now sits at the top of one of the most consequential media deals in decades.
The $110 Billion Deal and the Legal Mess Behind It
The proposed $110 billion merger is on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit. Attorneys general from a dozen Democrat-led states argue that Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery will violate antitrust laws, weaken competition, and increase costs for consumers.
But Ellison has pushed back hard on that characterization. In his New York Times op-ed, he wrote, “I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news. 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.”
That’s a remarkable admission from someone trying to close a deal. He’s essentially conceding that the legal fight is, at its core, a political fight over who gets to control one of the most-watched cable news networks in the country.
Democrats are suing to ensure CNN remains a left-wing, Trump-hating attack operation.
Ellison wrote in the op-ed, “I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views.”
And yet his own chief legal officer just told a room full of media and political figures that CNN needs to get “back to news.” Those two messages don’t exactly point in the same direction.
Ellison’s Times op-ed did not include Delrahim’s remark, but did reference a plan to “tell it straight down the middle.” “Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle,” Ellison wrote. “That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence.”
The California attorney general leading the lawsuit, Rob Bonta, isn’t buying the settlement talk. Bonta said the states are open to any “good faith” proposals, but “right now, we’re focused on litigation and going to trial.”
At the same conference, Delrahim also addressed whether CNN itself might be sold as a concession to help clear the deal. Asked whether Paramount would consider selling CNN if doing so would allow the transaction to move forward, Delrahim said “everything is on the table.” But Paramount subsequently walked that back. CNN’s Brian Stelter said Delrahim’s remarks were intended to convey Paramount’s willingness to negotiate with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, rather than signal that Ellison is preparing to unload CNN.
CNN Insiders Aren’t Reassured
The people actually working at CNN aren’t exactly celebrating the prospect of new ownership.
A veteran CNN staffer suggested that Ellison’s essay won’t exactly lift spirits. “I don’t think it will calm the nerves of anyone at CNN! No one is worried about his politics, we’re worried that he doesn’t have any affection for the role of journalism,” the staffer told Fox News Digital.
The staffer continued: “And as much as he paid lip service in this piece to those concerns, we don’t really have to guess at what he’d do — his moves at CBS have reflected the opposite. A disregard for independent storytelling, holding powerful people accountable, and investing in journalists and journalism, as executed by his hire, Bari Weiss.”
But here’s the thing worth sitting with for a moment. The same network that CNN staffers are defending as a pillar of independent journalism spent years openly cheering for one political party, treating every Trump press conference as a national emergency, and platforming commentators whose job was essentially to perform outrage on a loop. The idea that CNN has been a model of neutral, fact-based reporting — the kind of thing Ellison is now promising to restore — is a claim that would get laughed out of most living rooms in America.
Viewers noticed. Ratings showed it. And now the people who may soon sign the paychecks are saying it out loud.
What terrifies CNN insiders is that Paramount, which already owns CBS News, would also take control of CNN and shift the network to the middle.
CNN is a liberal network, which is staffed by liberals, many of whom are terrified at the prospect of having to be fair to President Trump.
Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Ellison accusing him of “colluding” with President Trump and urging him to answer questions. With Republicans in control of the House, Democrats like Raskin can’t compel Ellison to testify. So the letter is mostly theater — the kind of thing you send when you want to generate a headline but don’t actually have any leverage.
The trial on the antitrust suit won’t happen anytime soon. US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled that the trial will run March 2 through March 19 of next year. The delayed trial is a setback for Paramount, which agreed to pause the acquisition and elected to go to trial after facing the pair of antitrust suits.
But whatever happens in that courtroom, the conversation about what CNN is supposed to be — and who gets to decide — isn’t going away. Delrahim said three words, and suddenly everyone in the building is asking the same question: what exactly does “back” mean?
For millions of Americans who gave up on CNN years ago, the answer seems pretty obvious.
Sources: Mediaite; Fox News Digital; Deadline; The Wrap; CNN Business; Poynter