• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Paramount Skydance has an answer to the question of what will happen when the big media company takes over CNN and combines it with CBS when it comes to TV news coverage.

Truth and trust. Considering recent moves, is it something consumers and advertisers might need to examine further?

In its interview, CNBC brought up one obvious question that CEO and chairman of Paramount David Ellison was no doubt expecting.

David Faber of CNBC wondered about the cloudy environment -- the "political overlay” many U.S. companies now have. He asked whether, once Paramount takes control of CNN, “you will be more beholden to the Trump administration.”

Ellison responded with what probably was anticipated, that “editorial independence will absolutely be maintained. It is maintained at CBS. It'll be maintained at CNN.”

He added: “And really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center-left, or center-right. And we want to be in the truth [emphasis added] business. We want to be in the trust business. And that's not going to change.”

Does this make things easier for consumers of those networks -- and TV advertisers who support CNN and CBS?

To date, analysts, however they see another side -- especially if recent moves are similarly repeated: There have been massive defections and job cuts at CBS News, as well as concessions regarding editing of video interviews. Throw in the hiring of Bari Weiss as editor in chief at CBS News, a “conservative”-commentator, as well as a $16 million settlement just before Skydance finalized its deal to buy Paramount in August 2025.

In a semi-related “news” programming decision, one might add the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” -- where the host regularly offers comedic riffs on news content.

Moving forward, what changes can be expected at CNN? Consolidation of news resources for CBS and CNN for sure.

Perhaps one upcoming wrinkle could be merging a more “unionized” CBS and a non-union oriented CNN.

Consumer-facing on-air presenters are one area. Specifically, key CNN anchors who have been somewhat critical of the Trump Administration are coming, according to analysis.

In any significantly big business-deal merger it is obviously important to keep synergy costs savings high on the list. In this media business case that hopefully means to journalistically continue offering a balanced view.

And it should not be overwhelming when hearing longtime journalistic catch phrases of “speaking truth to power” and having a “watchdog function.”

Drilling down to those highly scrutinized TV moments, where does opinion and commentary fit into this new industry framework in any news, late night  or prime-time programming format?