David Ellison published an op-ed Tuesday defending the Paramount-WBD deal from a 12-state lawsuit, distancing himself from partisan politics. The trial is pending.
David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, defending his proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal is on hold as 12 Democratic states challenge it in court.
Ellison sought to distance himself from the partisan politics that have surrounded the transaction. “There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,” he wrote. He said his views are “just like most Americans,” with some conservative and some liberal leanings.
The op-ed marks a shift from Ellison's earlier approach. He had courted President Donald Trump and installed Bari Weiss, a prominent critic of “woke” media, as head of CBS News. The network also canceled Stephen Colbert's show. Critics saw those moves as political. Paramount said they were business decisions.
Ellison wrote that he does not “aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views.” He also argued that the combined Paramount-WBD would be strong enough to compete with Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, but could not “dictate what audiences watch or what writers get paid.”
The states suing to stop the deal argue that the merger would give the combined company too much power over theatrical distribution and cable TV channel licensing. The case is set for trial.
Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump backer whose wealth backstopped the deal. Public records show David Ellison donated more than $900,000 to a fund supporting Joe Biden's 2024 campaign. Trump called the Ellisons “two great people” in March.
Warner Bros. Discovery carries an Alpha Score of 43 out of 100, with a label of Mixed, according to proprietary AlphaScala data. The stock page is /stocks/wbd.
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