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Paramount Skydance‘s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery places CNN and its sister cable networks squarely back into what is likely to be an extended period of management limbo. There was some relief at CNN with last Friday’s announcement that Netflix was buying Warner’s studio and streaming businesses, since the cable network would not be a part of that deal. But that quickly changed on Monday with Paramount’s announced bid, which includes the cable assets that Netflix doesn’t want and, if successful, opens the possibility of a combined CNN and CBS News. The management uncertainty adds to what is already a challenging time at CNN, where there was no doubt who was in charge before swashbuckling founder Ted Turner sold his company in 1996. That era might as well be the roaring ’20s for how long ago it feels, said Ross Benes, senior analyst at emarketer.com. The dueling bids between Paramount and Netflix now lead to more uncertainty and greater anxiety among the current CNN staff and among those of us who served for many years as leaders of CNN under Ted, said Tom Johnson, former CNN president in the 1990s. Paramount’s bid, which must be approved by shareholders and regulators, could be seen favorably by President Donald Trump, who is closely allied with Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison as well as his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison. But Trump has already expressed anger at the company on social media for Sunday’s 60 Minutes report on former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Prior to Friday’s announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery had said it planned to spin off its cable television networks, including CNN, Discovery, HGTV, the Food Network, and TLC, into a separate company. The growth of streaming has made cable networks an unattractive business. CNN’s television ratings have tumbled to the extent that it is firmly the third-rated cable news network behind Fox News Channel and MS NOW, formerly MSNBC. Its CEO, Mark Thompson, has aggressively moved into digital with a new subscription service and said that management of Discovery Global, the spinoff company, has already approved a 2026 budget investing in the plan. I know this strategic review has been a period of inevitable uncertainty across CNN and indeed the whole of WBD, Thompson told staff in a memo Friday. Of course, I can’t promise you that the media attention and noise around the sale of our parent will die down overnight. But I do think the path to the successful transformation of this great news enterprise remains open. Thompson had no additional comment on Monday, a spokeswoman said. Since Paramount’s takeover of CBS News this past summer, the network has taken steps to appeal to more conservative viewers with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. Weiss is moderating a prime-time discussion this weekend with Erika Kirk, widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. During an appearance on CNBC Monday, Ellison answered, yeah, when asked if he would combine CNN’s newsgathering operation with CBS News. What exactly that means is unclear. We want to build a scaled news service that is basically, fundamentally, in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70% of Americans that are in the middle, Ellison said. Trump has spoken highly of both Ellison and his billionaire father. But he was clearly angry about Lesley Stahl’s 60 Minutes interview with former MAGA supporter Greene, who broke with him and recently resigned from Congress. Trump said on Truth Social that his real problem with the show is that the new corporate ownership allowed it to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, Trump said, adding he believed that 60 Minutes had gotten worse from his perspective since the changeover. CNN is not likely to find out soon who its new owners would be. Even before the Paramount bid, experts had predicted the Netflix deal would face more than a year of regulatory hurdles. There is such a need for independent, unbiased news services, Johnson said. I so hope that the new CNN owners will see that as their fundamental mission. If Netflix eventually wins, emarketer.com’s Benes predicted it would be likely that the spinoff company, Discovery Global, would be shopped around to other buyers. CNN will be in limbo for a while no matter which bidder purchases CNN, he said. David Bauder, AP media writer
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump will road-test his claims that he’s tackling Americans’ affordability woes at a Tuesday rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvaniashifting an argument made in Oval Office appearances and social media posts to a campaign-style event. The trip comes as polling consistently shows that public trust in Trump’s economic leadership has faltered. Following dismal results for Republicans in last month’s off-cycle elections, the White House has sought to convince voters that the economy will emerge stronger next year and that any anxieties over inflation have nothing to do with Trump. The president has consistently blamed his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, for inflation even as his own aggressive implementation of policies has pushed up prices that had been settling down after spiking in 2022 to a four-decade high. Inflation began to accelerate after Trump announced his sweeping Liberation Day tariffs in April. Companies warned that the import taxes could be passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices and reduced hiring, yet Trump continues to insist that inflation has faded. Were bringing prices way down,” Trump said at the White House on Monday. You can call it affordability or anything you wantbut the Democrats caused the affordability problem, and were the ones that are fixing it. The president’s reception in the county hosting his Tuesday rally could give a signal of just how much voters trust his claims. Monroe County flipped to Trump in the 2024 election after having backed Biden in 2020, helping the Republican to win the swing state of Pennsylvania and return to the White House after a four-year hiatus. As home to the Pocono Mountains, the county has largely relied on tourism for skiing, hiking, hunting, and other activities as a source of jobs. Its proximity to New York Cityunder two hours by carhas also attracted people seeking more affordable housing. It’s also an area that could help decide control of the House in next year’s midterm elections. Trump is holding his rally in a congressional district held by freshman Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who is a top target of Democrats and won his 2024 race by about 1.5 percentage points, among the nations closest. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a Democrat, is running for the nomination to challenge him. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said on the online conservative talk show The Mom View that Trump would be on the campaign trail next year to engage supporters who otherwise might sit out a congressional race. Wiles, who helped manage Trump’s 2024 campaign, said most administrations try to localize midterm elections and keep the president out of the race, but she intends to do the opposite of that. Were actually going to turn that on its head,” Wiles said, “and put him on the ballot because so many of those low-propensity voters are Trump voters. Wiles added, So I havent quite broken it to him yet, but hes going to campaign like its 2024 again. Trump has said he’s giving consumers relief by relaxing fuel efficiency standards for autos and signing agreements to reduce list prices on prescription drugs. Trump has also advocated for cuts to the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest ratewhich influences the supply of money in the U.S. economy. He argues that would reduce the cost of mortgages and auto loans, although critics warn that cuts of the scale sought by Trump could instead worsen inflation. The U.S. economy has shown signs of resilience with the stock market up this year and overall growth looking solid for the third quarter. But many Americans see the prices of housing, groceries, education, electricity, and other basic needs as swallowing up their incomes, a dynamic that the Trump administration has said it expects to fade next year with more investments in artificial intelligence and manufacturing. Since the elections in November when Democrats won key races with a focus on kitchen table issues, Trump has often dismissed the concerns about prices as a hoax and a con job to suggest that he bears no responsibility for inflation, even though he campaigned on his ability to quickly bring down prices. Just 33% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a November survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. By Josh Boak and Marc Levy, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has created a new $1 billion grant program to make U.S. airports more family- and health-friendly. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched the Make Travel Family Friendly Again campaign alongside Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday, December 8, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “I am talking about ushering in the golden age of transportation,” Duffy said, adding they are hiring more air traffic controllers, and asking retiring air traffic controllers to stay on the job. However, the Transportation Secretary said the funding is dedicated to “making the experience better in airports and its pretty wide open on what airports want to ask for” but could include additional nursing pods for breastfeeding mothers, workout areas, and family lanes for security checkpoints. Duffy said he has also reached out to the CEOs at a “majority of airlines” to see what they can do. Making the airport experience better, by making the experience healthier “I fly typically, over the past 30 years, on average 250 days a year, and I can tell you, this is where healthy diets go to die,” Kennedy said. Kennedy added that one of the things Secretary Duffy is encouraging airports to do on the health front, is open up new options like Farmer’s Fridge, a healthy food vending machinewhose CEO joined Kennedy at the podium. He also encouraged airports to apply for grants to create playground for kids, to decrease screen time.
Category:
E-Commerce
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