CNN Staffers Are Calling It a Bloodbath and the Merger Hasn’t Even Closed Yet

September 26, 2026 Cat2, The Media
SkazovD via shutterstock

CNN staffers just called their own newsroom "like a funeral."

Now the merger that has them terrified is actually happening.

And the man who gets to decide their fate is the son of one of Donald Trump's biggest donors.

Paramount Cleared the Last Hurdle

Paramount reached a deal Monday with 12 state attorneys general, removing the final obstacle to its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

That means CNN is now about to land inside the same corporate empire as CBS News – the one David Ellison already controls.

The same David Ellison who paid $150 million for Bari Weiss's outlet and handed her the keys to CBS News last fall.

The same Bari Weiss who already fired the executive producer of 60 Minutes and two of its veteran correspondents.

CNN staffers know exactly what comes next.

"Bloodbath coming, including at CNN," a TV executive told the NY Post. "That's the next big step — slashing and burning."

Another staffer described watching the merger closely like tracking a hurricane making landfall – you can see exactly where it's headed and there is nothing you can do.

“It’s like when you do hurricane coverage,” he said. “You see the storm spinning off the coast of Haiti and moving towards Florida and you’re just waiting and you’re like, ‘Oh, s**t’.”

“There’s been a complete absence of information about what’s going on and who is going to be in charge,” another CNN staffer told The Post.

CBS staffers are also worried about what the merger could mean for their jobs.

“I’m feeling defeated and dejected,” one CBS staffer said. “The vandalism David and Bari have done to CBS News has been catastrophic. Ellison is still going to get his hands on CNN and if they do just one quarter of the damage they’ve done to CBS, CNN is over. It’s sad for news. It’s sad for America. It’s just sad.”

Paramount has already promised $6 billion in cost savings from the deal – corporate language for thousands of jobs gone.

They Have Seen This Movie Before

This is not new.

When AOL merged with Time Warner in 2001, CNN shed 400 employees – roughly 9 percent of its entire staff – within months of the deal closing.

When Warner Bros. Discovery formed in 2022, CNN launched a streaming service called CNN+, burned $300 million, shut it down 30 days later, and then cut hundreds more jobs across the network.

This time, though, the new boss is not just a cost-cutter.

David Ellison's father, Larry, is one of Donald Trump's most prominent financial backers – and CNN staffers have known it since the merger was first announced.

"Great news organizations like CNN and CBS News are here to tell it straight down the middle," Ellison said. "That requires newsrooms that reflect the whole world, not one side of it. And it requires independence."

Since June, employees have been so rattled they turned their boss's office into what one report called a makeshift psychiatrist's couch – walking in to vent their fears about what Ellison ownership means for a network that built its brand attacking Trump for a decade.

CNN boss Mark Thompson scheduled a town hall for Wednesday to offer comfort.

Nobody thinks words are going to help.

These are the people who told you Trump was going to end democracy.

They called his supporters rubes, racists, and a threat to the republic.

And now they are holding therapy sessions in their boss's office because a Trump ally might make them cover the news honestly.

Good.

Sources:

  • Simon Kent, "CNN Staffers Panic over Paramount Merger: 'Bloodbath Coming,' Newsroom Is 'Like a Funeral'," Breitbart News, September 23, 2026.
  • NY Post Staff, "CNN staffers panic over Paramount merger as layoffs loom," New York Post, September 22, 2026.
  • David Bauder, "CBS Buys The Free Press Website, Installs Founder Bari Weiss as CBS News Editor-in-chief," Associated Press, October 6, 2025.
  • David Folkenflik, "CBS' Bari Weiss overhauls '60 Minutes,' fires top producer and reporters," NPR, May 2026.
  • Paramount Global, Investor Relations – Acquisition Announcement, ir.paramount.com, 2026.