The Media Front: David Ellison, the King of All Media

02.03.2026 17:06

TheWrap.com

After waking up Saturday to news of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, I did what I often do in moments of global conflict: I turned on CNN. Correspondents beamed in from across the region — Jeremy Diamond reporting from Jerusalem, Bijan Hosseini in Doha and Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi.

The network delivered comprehensive coverage throughout a dizzying, historic day that included news of the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation’s supreme leader. CNN showed once again what it can do on screen, even amid anxiety behind the scenes.

Inside CNN, the network’s future under David Ellison has been the subject of intense speculation since Paramount moved ahead in the race to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Beyond the global news operation, the freshly minted 43-year-media mogul could control Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, HBO Max, CBS, TBS, TNT, Comedy Central, HGTV, Discovery, The Free Press and more.

And then there’s the 15 percent stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations — acquired last month by his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.

No disrespect to Howard Stern, but these days, Ellison looks more like the “King of all Media.”

The Ellison empire now rivals the Murdochs — and may soon eclipse them. But unlike Rupert Murdoch, who started with a single Australian newspaper and built his empire over decades, the Ellisons are amassing media and cultural clout at breakneck speed.

A year ago, Ellison was still trying to complete Skydance’s merger with Paramount and flying relatively under the radar. The most comprehensive profile at the time, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s “The Kid Pays for the Picture,” had been published in 2015.

Brodesser-Akner chronicled Ellison, a Ferrari-driving scion and sometimes actor, as he turned to financing and producing action movies. More recent profiles, published amid the Paramount wrangling, similarly portray a movie-loving, trust-funder making hits in Hollywood. Politics —and the news business — barely register.

Ellison donated nearly $1 million to the Biden Victory Fund in 2024, a break from his GOP-backing father. Beyond that, Ellison has shown little interest in electoral politics, or “being actively involved in the news business,” as Reeves Wiedeman wrote in last month’s New York magazine cover story.

Honored to have David Ellison as my guest to @POTUS’ State of the Union address this evening. pic.twitter.com/wtvEqYiXHS
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 25, 2026

But news and politics are now central to the David Ellison story.

Ellison warned about the dangers of partisanship in his note announcing the acquisition of The Free Press, while invoking the values of “truth,” “facts,” and “trust.” He spoke in December about how a combined CBS and CNN should cater to the “70% of Americans who are in the middle” rather than political extremes.

What’s alarming some CNN staffers isn’t Ellison’s stated support for rigorous, nonpartisan and fact-based reporting. It’s the perception — fueled by reporting in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere — that he has sought to curry favor with Donald Trump. The Journal reported that Ellison gave assurances to administration officials that he would “make sweeping changes to CNN.” Ellison has described “great conversations” with Trump, without elaborating.

Weiss’ stewardship of CBS News and the network’s clash with late night host Stephen Colbert a little more than a week ago have contributed to unease that a Paramount-led CNN could bend to political influence. Ellison’s thumbs-up photo this past week with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ahead of Trump’s State of the Union, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s praise, have done little to dampen concerns.

“I think they’re doing a great job,” Carr said Wednesday at Semafor’s media trust summit. “One of the things that I really enjoy about CBS is they’re trying to do something different.”

Jake Tapper (Photo credit: CNN/YouTube)

CNN anxiety mounts

Corbin Bolies and I report on fears inside the CNN newsroom:

While CNN may not be the most coveted property in the WBD stable — rival suitor Netflix only desired HBO and the studio assets — it is the most politically radioactive.

Trump has bristled at CNN’s coverage for years, blasting stars like Jim Acosta during his first term and Kaitlan Collins in the second. He made clear in December that the news channel, rather than TNT or the Food Network, was front of mind in the WBD sale saga, declaring that “it’s imperative that CNN be sold” and placed under new management.

“People think it could be the end of CNN,” a second staffer told TheWrap. “As much as people say that’s not possible, what’s to say that’s not possible?”

The only certainty inside, it seems, is uncertainty. Staffers don’t know precisely how a deal would unfold — and even if Paramount faces an easier regulatory path than Netflix would have, new management would not take effect until late 2026 at the earliest.

“Contracts are coming up, and everybody is confused,” the first staffer added. “What are we signing on to? What is CNN going to be?”

Check out the full piece: CNN Anxiety Mounts as Paramount Nears Control: ‘People Think It Could Be the End’

John Oliver in “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” (HBO)

Behind Paramount’s triumph

While Bolies and I dove into the CBS and CNN of it all, please check out the wide-ranging coverage on the TheWrap.

Sharon Waxman: What Paramount’s Winning Warner Bid Means: More Movies, More Debt and a CNN in Question

Roger Cheng: Paramount Snatches Warner Bros. From the Jaws of Netflix | Analysis

Kayla Cobb: The Future of John Oliver’s ‘Last Week Tonight’ Will Be a Stress Test for Paramount | Analysis

Lucas Manfredi: Netflix Stock Rises Another 10% After Dropping Out of Warner Bros. Bidding War

Tess Patton: Paramount Pays Netflix $2.8 Billion Breakup Fee After Warner Bros. Deal Win

(MS NOW)

Pod save cable?

Bolies checks in with MS NOW and Crooked Media execs about their new partnership.

“Crooked on MS NOW,” the network’s head of digital Madeleine Haeringer told TheWrap, is part of president Rebecca Kutler’s aggressive investment in digital media as MS NOW cements its independence from NBC News following parent company Versant’s split from Comcast at the beginning of the year.

“They have a deep bench of beloved hosts that make sense of current events for our respective audience,” said Haeringer, an NBC and MSNBC veteran who joined Crooked Media in 2023 as EVP and general manager of news and programming before returning to the cable network last year. “They bring a lot of institutional political perspective, and so it’s just kind of a natural fit.”

And what does this relationship say about the future of political media? Check out more here: MS NOW’s Mash-Up With Crooked Media Points to a New Progressive Model

President Donald Trump (Credit: Kenny Holston/Pool/Getty Images)

Stream of the union

I caught up with organizers of two State of the Union events — “State of the Swamp” and “The People’s State of the Union” — to see how progressives sought to counterprogram the president.

Traditionally,it’s difficult for the party out of power to make its presence felt during the State of the Union. The president commands a joint session of Congress, can speak as long as he wants and will be carried live on all the broadcast and cable networks.

The biggest names in TV news — Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, David Muir — will be behind the anchor desk for the occasion, along with dozens of anchors, talking heads and correspondents, while news outlets live-blog the proceedings and reporters tweet away.

But as we’ve seen with everything from the Super Bowl to the Olympics, not everyone is consuming big events through a traditional broadcast. Audiences are eager to find personality-driven programming or political framing they prefer.

The full piece is here: Trump’s State of the Union Resistance Will Be Streamed | Analysis

Plus: Trump’s State of the Union Draws 32.6 Million Viewers, Down 11% From Last Year

Politico newspaper (Credit: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images)