The merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is done, and the two entities are now part of what’s now simply known as Skydance. As a result, CNN now falls under the purview of CEO David Ellison and co, and many have had thoughts on that. Media pundits have expressed concerns, specifically due to Ellison’s handling of CBS News, for which he hired Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. Former CBS employee Scott Pelley has been critical of the pair, and he’s now sharing advice for those working at CNN.
Pelley long served as an anchor and managing editor for CBS Evening News from 2011 to 2017 and was a correspondent from 2003 to 2026. This past summer, Pelley – along with several others – was fired from the Eye Network’s news branch as part of a major overhaul. Since then, Pelley has criticized the company’s top brass for alleged editorial bias and more. The veteran journalist recently took part in a discussion at the Press Forward Summit and commented on Ellison’s assertion that editorial interference won’t happen at CNN:
He told me that while shaking my hand in my office at 60 Minutes about a year and a half ago…. All I know is what he did, and I say he. I have to underscore and italicize that I didn’t see him do anything or take any particular action. I saw his company and the people who worked for him doing those things. So I really do want to emphasize that I did not see, hear, watch David Ellison take any particular action. All I know is what his company did and what the executives at that company did and the way it was passed down to us through levels of management.
These comments (which can be found on YouTube) come months after reports of Pelley’s meeting with relatively new 60 Minutes EP Nick Bilton, which reportedly became tense. During the conversation, Pelley apparently accused Weiss of “murdering” the news magazine show, and he was fired shortly after. Around that same time, EP Tanya Simon, correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and more were also fired.
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Former CBS staffers have since made claims of “journalistic interference,” which Bari Weiss and others have denied. Nevertheless, it was reported that CNN employees were concerned about the prospect of Weiss taking over the network. It’s since been confirmed that Weiss won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of the Ted Turner-founded news entity and that Mark Thompson will remain CEO. Pelley referenced the latter executive decision amid his conversation at the summit, and offered some advice for employees:
Stick to your ethics and hold the line. Oppose everything that shocks the conscience of a credible reliable journalist. They have left Mark Thompson in place for now. I know Mark, he is a brilliant news manager and journalist of the highest integrity. So that is a very good sign. I think as long as he’s there, to your point, he can be a firewall.
In the aftermath of the merger, Weiss hasn’t publicly addressed her exclusion from CNN, though she did discuss her feelings on the corporate shifts in relation to CBS News. Weiss sent out an internal memo that was obtained by the press and expressed uncertainty about changes that might unfold. She also advised her colleagues to “focus always on the work that we do.”
As for Scott Pelley – who’s now a Journalist in Residence at Columbia School of Journalism – he still maintains that keeping Bari Weiss at CBS News is a “terrible” idea. His thoughts on CNN, however, suggest that he’s cautiously optimistic about the network’s future.
