Joe Adalian

I mean, well, look, if you love CNN as it is, you probably like really mainstream centrist news.

I'm just going to say it.

Because it's certainly over the last couple of years under David Zaslav, who is also in his own way and with his own masters sort of tried to... His corporate masters has tried to make CNN more middle of the road and a little more MAGA friendly.

Democrats, they are for things.

Illegal aliens.

You're for boys and girls sports.

I do think...

There's some reason for concern, yes, at least in the short term.

There have been reports, credible reports, that people close to Paramount have assured the White House that we are going to change up CNN and make it better for you.

How much of that is simply the messaging that now has to go on with so many of these big companies?

Once the deal closes, they're less beholden to the government, at least on the CNN side, because CNN is cable and the FCC doesn't directly control cable.

The real worry is who runs this combined, almost certain to be combined news operation of CBS and CNN.

If it's Barry Weiss, the woman who is now in charge of CBS News, then yeah, there's probably reason for some people to be afraid of CNN going the way of CBS News and tilting further rightward, not just centrist, but center-right.

Marco Rubio, we salute you.

You're the ultimate Florida man.

Well, you know, let's talk about the consumer part of it.

In the short term, though, there are some wins for consumers because let's face it, people are frustrated as it is now of trying to find the shows they want across multiple platforms and keeping track of too much TV and what's it on and when.

If you get...

the consolidation where by themselves Paramount Plus and HBO Max are sort of second rate services.

But if what Ellison wants to do works, if he thinks that by getting this sort of big scale, he can more effectively compete at the level of Netflix,