Left Cries Foul, Sees ‘MAGA and Authoritarian Control’ in CNN’s Future Amid Report Paramount Is Exploring Investment by Musk

With Paramount Skydance poised to acquire CNN, fears are growing over the fate of the cable network as left-wing activists are warning of a “MAGA” takeover. On Monday, California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced a settlement to resolve a lawsuit that aimed to block Paramount’s $110 billion acquisition of CNN’s parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery. Democrats and liberal commentators have fretted about the future of CNN under the management of Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, the son of an Oracle co-founder and Trump supporter, Larry Ellison. As part of the settlement, Paramount agreed to establish an independent panel to protect the editorial independence of CBS News and CNN. And as the deal appears on track to close, Semafor reports that Paramount executives “have discussed asking Elon Musk to become part of a syndicate of equity investors into Paramount.” That report fueled concerns about the future of CBS News and CNN. A co-president of the left-wing think tank Public Citizen, Robert Weissman, told The New York Sun that the merger “represents the expansion of MAGA and authoritarian control over our leading media outlets.”“A fact made crystal clear by Paramount’s effort to bring in Elon Musk as a co-investor,” Mr. Weissman said. Semafor’s Rohan Goswami noted that an investment from Mr. Musk or other investors would be a “significant vote of confidence in the combined Paramount Warner Bros.” While Semafor notes that it is “unlikely” that Mr. Musk would “have formal input over the company’s operations,” opponents of Paramount’s acquisition of the two networks are not comforted. A senior director of strategy and communications at a press freedom group, Free Press, Timothy Karr, told the Sun, “Paramount is taking on a massive amount of debt to buy Warner Brothers. That money is coming from uber-wealthy people that expect a return on their investment.”Mr. Karr said that Paramount is “not in a high growth industry like technology” and that the return on investment “has to come from other ways.”“It would be naïve to believe that the Sovereign Wealth Funds or Elon Musk would not expect favorable coverage from the news media that they own sizable stakes in,” he said.Mr. Musk has previously criticized CNN, saying in 2024 it is “dying.” In January 2026, he called the “mainstream” media a “slow-moving far left propaganda machine.”The potential investment of Mr. Musk is not the only source of concern. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission gave Paramount the greenlight to sell equity stakes to the sovereign wealth funds of several foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Companies that hold broadcast licenses are required to receive the commission’s approval to have foreign ownership that exceeds 25 percent of their stock. A Democratic-appointed FCC commissioner, Anna Gomez, raised concerns about plans to let the sovereign wealth funds of “some of the most repressive governments in the world” invest roughly $24 billion.Ms. Gomez wrote on X last week, “An investment this large in one of America’s biggest media companies doesn’t just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and made.” The FCC downplayed concerns about foreign influence over Paramount’s news and entertainment businesses. In the order approving the plan for foreign investments, the FCC said Paramount said that its “new foreign investors, which will receive only non-voting equity, will not have any ability to influence the company’s editorial decision-making or news or entertainment content or to access its viewers’ personal data.”Over the last year, critics have raised concerns about the future of CBS News after Mr. Ellison brought on Bari Weiss, the founder of the pro-Israel and anti-woke outlet, the Free Press, to serve as the editor-in-chief of the Tiffany Network. Ms. Weiss has overseen revamps of CBS’ “Evening News” and “60 Minutes.” Earlier this year, three correspondents at the newsmagazine program were fired: Sharyn Alfonsi, Cecilia Vega, and Scott Pelley. Despite concerns that Ms. Weiss would drastically change the editorial stance of the program, media critics said it largely resembled previous iterations. A media analyst at CNN, Brian Stelter, said on the network that there were “some changes round the edges” but that the show “is back and as strong as it ever was.”Paramount did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Left Cries Foul, Sees ‘MAGA and Authoritarian Control’ in CNN’s Future Amid Report Paramount Is Exploring Investment by Musk

Left Cries Foul, Sees ‘MAGA and Authoritarian Control’ in CNN’s Future Amid Report Paramount Is Exploring Investment by Musk

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