On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders are scheduled to vote on a merger that could dramatically change the U.S. media landscape: the company’s merger with Paramount Skydance.
The deal, which still needs approval from federal regulators, would bring two of the nation’s largest news organizations, CBS News and CNN, under one roof.
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Earlier this month, independent proxy investor advisor Glass Lewis called on investors to vote in favor of the merger.
Paramount Skydance is led by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a key ally of US President Donald Trump. Under Mr. Ellison’s leadership, critics say the network has already taken steps to appease Mr. Trump.
Those moves include appointing Bari Weiss, a conservative opinion writer with no television experience, to lead the storied broadcast network. Former Trump administration appointee Ken Weinstein will be appointed ombudsman to crack down on bias. This includes slowing or rapidly increasing the publication of articles critical of the Trump administration, such as delaying the publication of articles about CECOT, the infamous giant prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration deported Venezuelan immigrants. Reporter Sharin Alfonsi, who reported on this story, called the move a “political” choice.
However, the deal remains subject to regulatory scrutiny. Last month, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr and asked him to investigate foreign investments in the merger, including sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as investments from China.
Across the pond, Britain’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), plans to launch an investigation into the impending deal, Reuters reported.
Even before the merger, some longtime reporters, including justice correspondent Scott McFarlane, became “disillusioned with the overall direction” of CBS under Ellison and Weiss and moved on, trade publication Status reported.
Among other major changes at the network, CBS announced last month that it would cease operating CBS News Radio, which represents 6 percent of its workforce.
If the merger goes ahead, CNN will become part of the same company. CNN is a frequent target of attack, viewed by President Trump as overly critical. Ellison reportedly promised Trump “fundamental changes” to the network once the deal is finalized.
CNN has long been a centrist network compared to MS Now on the left, formerly known as MSNBC, and Fox News, the service on the right.
There is growing concern within CNN about what the network’s future will be with the impending merger, with reports saying staff are “upset” about the possibility of the Ellisons running the cable network.
Last month, Paramount’s Ellison appeared on CNBC to allay fears that CNN’s editorial stance would change under him, saying editorial independence “needs to be maintained,” adding in an interview that “it is maintained at CBS,” a claim rejected by press freedom experts.
“Mr. Ellison has already proven himself on editorial independence and has no credibility on this issue,” Seth Stern, advocacy director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Al Jazeera.
“Mr. Ellison may not turn CNN into Fox News overnight, and he may still have CNN reporters criticize Mr. Trump from time to time. But when his business interests are at stake, Mr. Trump will almost certainly be given the editor-in-chief seat.”
new partisan bias
These concerns are underscored by similar mergers occurring in local news ecosystems, where partisan bias is typically less obvious.
The merger in question is between Nexstar and Tegna, two of the largest local affiliate operators in the United States. Reflecting concerns about a potential merger between the parent companies of CNN and CBS News, the Tegna-Nexstar merger could limit access to consolidation and different perspectives, especially since the merger would reach 80% of TV households in major U.S. markets.
Each network, such as ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, has its own editorial stance, but its affiliated local news stations do not necessarily share it.
There are approximately 250 ABC-affiliated news stations in the United States, but only eight of them are actually operated by Disney, ABC’s parent company. This also applies to other networks. CBS only operates 17 stations. Fox has 29 stations and NBC has 11, but both have affiliate stations in more than 200 markets.
Companies that operate affiliate stations that are not owned and operated by the network include Sinclair, Tegna, and Nexstar, as well as competitors such as Gray Media, Scripps, Hearst TV, Allen Media Group, and Graham Media.
In this model, television stations produce their own content, such as news programs, tailored to local audiences. It then licenses national network content to fill the remaining schedule, including national newscasts, talk shows, sitcoms, sports and other programming. Broadcasters and networks will share advertising revenue.
For the network, the deal allows it to reach a national audience without owning the broadcast infrastructure in every market. For local affiliates, it provides access to high-profile programming that attracts more viewers and supports stronger advertising revenue.
Historically, local news operators have not participated in partisan media ecosystems. But things are starting to change, starting with the right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns stations in 85 different markets, including ABC in Washington, D.C., and NBC in Providence, Rhode Island.
In 2018, the company gained notoriety for its right-wing stance and for using the same script across nearly 200 stations, forcing anchors in all markets to read a script that pushed President Trump’s talking points about the state of American media.
Nexstar, which now runs its own cable network called NewsNation and was initially unbiased, has former Fox personalities and right-wing staff, Status reported.
Local consumers have limited news options
Mergers of local news companies have faced antitrust scrutiny in the past. In 2018, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effectively blocked the impending merger between Tribune Media and Sinclair, then the largest affiliate in the U.S., by sending it into a lengthy regulatory review that would require both companies to sell the stations they owned.
Instead, Tribune pulled out of the deal, but later merged with Nexstar to become the largest carrier, bypassing Sinclair.
The $6.2 billion Tegna-Nexstar merger was approved by shareholders in November and received the blessing of the U.S. president.
“We need more competition from our enemy, the fake news national television network,” President Trump said in a February post on his social media platform TruthSocial.
In March, attorneys general from eight states, including New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina and Virginia, filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger. The next day, the FCC approved the merger. In response, a coalition of state legislatures filed an emergency motion to block the move.
FCC Chairman Carr, who was supposed to be involved in regulatory scrutiny of such transactions, reposted President Trump’s Truth Social post on X.
The deal is currently on hold after a federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order blocking the merger while the company considers antitrust litigation.
