CNN staffers in a panic over Paramount takeover whats likely in store for cable news giant

CNN staffers are freaking out after learning that their left-leaning network’s owner Warner Bros.Discovery will be acquired by Paramount Skydance — even as insiders confirmed that the new owners plan to take a more politically centrist approach to news, The Post has learned.Top talent and low-level producers alike are apoplectic that CNN is being acquired by Paramount Skydance, the media giant that scooped up CBS last year – and which subsequently tapped 41-year-old newshound Bari Weiss to root out liberal bias at the network.Now, CNN staffers are so panicked that the network’s president Mark Thompson was forced to send out a memo late Thursday to tamp down anxiety.

The merger still requires a greenlight from Trump’s Department of Justice, among other regulatory approvals.“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Thompson wrote late Thursday after it became clear that PSKY emerged victorious over Netflix. “And secondly let’s not forget our duty to our audience.We’re still near the start of what is already an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad, one that will culminate with critical U.S.

midterm elections and who knows what else,” Thompson added.On one hand, viewers can expect a more Trump-friendly CNN now that it will be owned by the media conglomerate known as PSKY, run by indie producer David Ellison in a deal financed by his dad, the long-time Trump supporting Oracle co-founder, Larry Ellison, people close to the company say.But that doesn’t mean that CNN will be automatically transformed into a MAGA sounding board; in fact people close to the Ellisons’ burgeoning media empire say they expect a centrist CNN to emerge from their $80.5 billion purchase.As one person inside Paramount Skydance told me: “Yes, I know people are scared but we’re looking to produce a news product that appeals to 70% of the country that is ei...