CNN Could Be the Next Washington Post

A billionaire with ties to Trump is about to own one of America's most important newsrooms.

Source: Gemini

On the morning of Saturday, February 28, when the United States launched large-scale combat operations in Iran, many Americans tuned in to CNN looking for information about what exactly was happening. Few other news organizations have CNN’s ability to embed reporters around the globe with local knowledge and expertise—reporters who can, at a moment’s notice, provide factual analysis of breaking news and inform the American public of rapidly evolving situations.

This kind of immediate, fact-driven, impartial news reporting is in decline. The Washington Post recently gutted its globe-trotting team of foreign correspondents. Even the editorial integrity of CBS News has been called into question because the network’s new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss seems more interested in not offending the administration than reporting the straight, unbiased truth.

CNN built its name as a news brand by having its reporters go anywhere and do anything to get the story. But, how much longer will that reporting continue, and are we going to be able to trust it?

During the summer of 2025, a bidding war emerged over ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery, the multinational mass media company that owns several movie studios and television networks, including CNN. Throughout the fall, Paramount Skydance and Netflix presented competing offers to Warner Bros. Discovery. In December 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to an $82.7 billion deal with Netflix that would have spun CNN off into a separate company. That’s when Paramount went on the offensive.

Paramount offered a new deal valued at $108.4 billion for all of the company’s assets, including CNN. Larry Ellison, the billionaire father of Paramount’s CEO David Ellison, personally pledged $40.4 billion to back the bid. David Ellison told lawmakers that a Netflix-Warner Bros. Discovery merger would be a “threat to fair competition,” pitching the merger with Paramount as a safer regulatory bet. Then, throughout January and February of 2026, Paramount continued to up its bid to approximately $110 billion. Eventually, Netflix declined to match Paramount’s offer and withdrew from the competition.

David Ellison has experience navigating the regulatory landscape under this administration. In 2025, Paramount Global proposed to merge with Skydance Media, David Ellison’s media company. On July 2, 2025, Paramount paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit with Donald Trump over the editing of a Trump interview on 60 Minutes. Three weeks later, the Federal Communications Commission approved the Paramount-Skydance merger.

Now, the agreement for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance is signed and awaiting regulatory approval. Assuming the administration approves the deal, the merger is expected to close later this year.

It remains to be seen whether CNN’s editorial independence will change under Paramount. But what’s clear is that the Ellison family will soon hold significant stakes in: CNN, CBS, TikTok, HBO, Comedy Central, Warner Bros. Studios, Paramount Studios, DC Studios, TNT, TBS, and more.

The consolidation of our media landscape into the hands of a politically connected billionaire family threatens our democracy. With control of news outlets, powerful billionaires can control narratives, bend coverage as they see fit, and influence the public through biased reporting.

Conservatives have spent decades decrying “liberal bias” in the media, and complaining that conservative politicians and policies could never get a fair shake. But the media’s ideological orientation has changed now that a small set of MAGA-sympathizing billionaires are poised to own most of the nation’s leading media outlets.

At Home of the Brave, we’ll be watching. If the Washington Post’s capitulation is any indication, CNN’s old moniker of “The Most Trusted Name in News” will soon ring every bit as hollow as the Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” This is what happens when oligarchs own the information stream.

Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.