Chaos Came to CBS News. Whats in Store for CNN?

Over nearly five decades, CNN has survived multiple owners, ratings ups and downs, and attacks by President Trump.Now, its journalists are bracing for its most dramatic transformation yet: a corporate merger that would put the 24-hour cable network under the same ownership as CBS News.David Ellison, the technology heir who controls Paramount, the owner of CBS, is poised to complete a $111 billion purchase of CNN’s parent company as soon as next month.Mr.Ellison has not publicly detailed what he has in store for CNN.

But the network’s newsroom is wary of his conspicuous coziness with Mr.Trump and the prospect that he may assign some oversight of CNN to Bari Weiss, his pick to run CBS News after he bought Paramount last year.Ms.

Weiss, who had virtually no broadcasting experience before taking over in October, has reshaped CBS News in occasionally chaotic ways, recently firing the leadership of the network’s flagship, “60 Minutes.” Several on-air correspondents who were fired later accused her of editorial interference, which she has denied.Mr.Ellison and his deputies are weighing whether to put Ms.

Weiss in charge of CNN, which is far larger than CBS News and is a major profit center, two people familiar with their thinking said.He has remained supportive of Ms.

Weiss, despite grumbling from journalists.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....