War Secretary Pete Hegseth took aim at CNN’s coverage of the war in Iran, saying that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” as Paramount Skydance moves ahead with its $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The comment came at a Friday press briefing as Hegseth was bashing an article published the day before that claimed the Trump administration had overlooked the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz — “more fake news from CNN,” the war secretary sneered.
“No quarter, no mercy for our enemies. Yet some in the press just can’t stop,” said the former Fox News host.
“The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better,” he added.
Since Paramount won the bidding war for CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, some media watchers have predicted Paramount will shift the cable news network’s political orientation along the lines it did at CBS News, where Ellison-hired Bari Weiss has brought more conservative voices.
For his part, Ellison has vowed to maintain CNN’s “editorial independence” as the deal — which would create a Hollywood behemoth including the news outlet, HBO, CBS and thousands of film titles — goes through regulatory review.
Hegseth’s ire Friday was directed at a CNN article that claimed the Pentagon and national security team had “significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz,” after the Middle Eastern nation blocked the key maritime route for 20% of the world’s oil supply.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei – who was reportedly injured in the US-Israeli strikes that killed his father – has vowed to keep the blockade in place and attack any vessels that dare to traverse the waterway, sending oil and gasoline prices soaring.
The CNN report, which cited multiple anonymous sources, claimed the oversight was a failing of President Trump’s preference to lean on “a tight circle of close advisers,” which prevented “interagency debate” over the “worst-case scenario.”
David Ellison has promised not to meddle in CNN’s operations.
“Editorial independence will absolutely be maintained. It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN,” the exec told CNBC earlier this month.
“And, really, who we want to talk to is the 70% of Americans and really around the world that identify as center-left, as center-right. And we want to be in the truth business. We want to be in the trust business. And that’s not going to change,” he added.
Still, CNN staffers are reportedly worried that the deal could threaten their newsroom’s independence, pointing to Weiss’ stewardship of CBS News since she took the helm there in October.
Weiss, a former New York Times opinion journalist and founder of The Free Press, is known for her criticism of “cancel culture” and “woke” politics.
Recent months have seen her shelve a “60 Minutes” report on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison because it lacked voices from the Trump administration, and several high-profile staffers have fled the network amid ongoing talent shake-ups.
The president has long blasted CNN’s coverage of him as “dishonest.” In December, he called for any deal involving Warner Bros. to hand CNN over to new owners.
Anchors, producers and correspondents at the left-leaning cable network are concerned that Trump – who close to Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle and David Ellison’s father – will be on the phone daily orchestrating CBS and CNN coverage, The Post previously reported.
The younger Ellison assured Trump administration officials that he would make sweeping changes to CNN if he bought Warner Bros., the Wall Street Journal reported in December.
“Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great,” the president told reporters in October. “They’re friends of mine. They’re big supporters of mine, and they’ll do the right thing.”
