Christiane Amanpour Voices Concern Over David Ellison's Potential CNN Acquisition

Veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour said Wednesday she was concerned about billionaire media executive David Ellison's potential acquisition of CNN through Paramount Skydance's proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

"Clearly, I’m concerned — and I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say about the corporate thing that’s underway — but I am obviously, as a person, as a journalist with a record, concerned," Amanpour said during a panel at the Sir Henry Evans Investigative Journalism Summit in London.

The longtime CNN anchor pointed to changes at CBS News under Ellison’s leadership as a warning for CNN staff and viewers.

"I’m concerned based on what’s happened to the other things that he’s taken over already, like CBS News, right?" Amanpour said. "I mean, do I have to list what’s happening there? I mean, hemorrhaging viewers, probably hemorrhaging money, this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction, potentially, of ‘60 Minutes.’"

Amanpour, who has worked at CNN since 1983, said she hopes the network keeps its editorial independence if the deal goes through.

"I would like to think that we would have the very basic, which is editorial independence," she said. "I’m hoping for that. I know many of us at CNN are incredibly — including leadership — very, very committed to that, clearly."

Paramount Skydance, led by Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is pursuing a reported $11.1 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent.

Ellison last year took over CBS News and named journalist Bari Weiss editor-in-chief, asking her to add more conservative viewpoints.

Those changes have caused internal fights, including uproar over a temporary delay of a 60 Minutes report on El Salvador’s CECOT prison, where the Trump administration sent Venezuelan migrants.

CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the segment was spiked in December for political reasons. Weiss said it lacked enough sources and needed comment from a Trump official before airing. The report ran in January.

President Donald Trump has criticized CNN and suggested Warner Bros. Discovery sell it in any deal, calling its owners a very dishonest group.