CNN’s Chief Mark Thompson Confirms WarnerDiscovery CEO David Zaslav Will Hold Companywide Town Hall Tomorrow On Skydance Deal. Staffers Say “Everybody’s Reeling About The Obvious Things. Panic Right Now Off The Charts.” WH Advisers Took Victory Lap: “They Think Trump Won & Want Everyone To Know It.”
by lowell2017
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Full text:
“On Thursday afternoon, shortly after Netflix boss Ted Sarandos departed the White House following meetings with Donald Trump’s chief of staff and the Justice Department, the streamer issued a statement stunning the entertainment industry. Netflix, which was widely expected to counter Paramount’s “superior” $31-per-share bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, suddenly declared the deal “no longer financially attractive,” abandoning its pursuit of the storied movie studio and streaming operation altogether.
The unexpected reversal clears the way for David Ellison, the Paramount Skydance chief who has gone to great lengths to signal to Trump that he is an ally, to seize control of WBD’s sprawling portfolio of brands. That includes Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO Max, and a slate of cable networks—most notably, CNN.
While the move all but guarantees brutal layoffs across the company, it landed like a meteor at Hudson Yards. Inside CNN, alarm bells went off as staffers began to panic over the suddenly very real prospect that they could be working for Bari Weiss before the end of the year. Within minutes of the news crossing the wire, my phone lit up with messages from anxious employees fretting about the future. “We are doomed,” one staffer candidly said. “We are f**ked,” said another. “Everybody is reeling about the obvious things,” said a third.
“The panic at CNN right now is off the charts,” one insider told Status of the larger mood that had arrested the network.
Likely sensing the anxiety reverberating across his newsroom, CNN chief Mark Thompson quickly sent staffers a memo, a copy of which was obtained by Status. In the missive, Thompson wrote that WBD boss David Zaslav will hold a town hall on Friday “to discuss the news.” CNN, he added, would follow with its own town hall “as soon as possible after that to discuss next steps and to answer your questions to the best of our ability.” Thompson urged employees not to “jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” and encouraged them to continue “delivering the best possible journalism to the millions of people who rely on us around the world.”
That’s easier said than done, of course. At this stage, CNN staffers have every reason to be worried about the future. What is unfolding is plain as day. Trump, who has despised CNN more than any other institution throughout his political career, wants to neuter the network. He wants to break it. And that is precisely why his administration did everything it could to tilt the scales against Netflix and in Ellison’s favor. Sarandos throughout the process claimed the deal was not a political one. But, in reality, with Trump in the White House, it very much was.
Indeed, Status has learned that Trump advisers started taking a victory lap on Thursday evening after Ellison’s victory. “They think Trump won and they want everyone to know it,” a person familiar with the matter told Status.
It remains unclear how Sarandos’ meetings with Susie Wiles and the Justice Department unfolded earlier in the day. One person insisted to me that they went well. But in the days leading up to Netflix’s retreat, it had become clear that Republicans were preparing to wage war on the deal.
A Netflix acquisition would have resulted in CNN spinning off alongside WBD’s other cable networks into an independent company, similar to MS NOW’s separation under Versant—an outcome that Trump did not want. And so, his MAGA movement quickly got in line to kill it. Republican state attorneys general sent a letter urging the DOJ to block the transaction. And the GOP-led Senate scheduled yet another hearing raising antitrust concerns.
To be clear, there were legitimate antitrust questions surrounding a Netflix deal, just as there are with the Paramount transaction. But it has been obvious that antitrust was not the real motivating force behind Republicans opposing the deal.”
I think that the best case scenario would be for CNN’s ratings to collapse to the point were it can’t continue to exist.
Foreign financing. Bari in charge. And MAGA on a Rocky Mountain High. This deal is the worst of the worst, and it’s sickening seeing our concerns for it coming true in real fucking time.
Congress, pressure DOJ to kill this deal. Then, impeach our President. Now.
Tie this shit up in the courts. Drag it out. Make it painful.
David Ellison got what he wanted and now he has to face the music.
Ted had a meeting at the White House. Netflix pulls out. Prob not a coincidence. Trump’s administration prob made it very clear they’d never approve it and tie them up in court for years.
You don’t allow WB to go back and talk with Paramount, go on a media blitz like Ted did and then drop out like this unless someone told you it won’t ever happen.
Paywalled