WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he wants to ensure CNN gets new ownership as part of the Warner Bros Discovery sale, targeting the news outlet he has long feuded with.
Warner Bros Discovery has become the center of a bidding war between Paramount — led by CEO David Ellison, son of Trump ally Larry Ellison — and streaming giant Netflix.
Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into the Ellisons’ hands. Under the Netflix deal, Warner Bros Discovery would sell off CNN and other cable news properties separately before closing the sale of its studio and streaming operations to Netflix.
“I think any deal should — it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately,” Trump told business leaders Wednesday at the White House.
“I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don’t think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else,” he added.
In a break from the norm, Trump has said he would be involved in the government’s decision to approve the deal, instead of leaving the question solely to the Department of Justice, as is typically the case.
US media reports indicate that both bidders — which Trump called “good companies” in his remarks — have lobbied the White House and Trump directly to support their bids.
Trump has long had a hostile relationship with CNN and other major news organizations, branding them “fake news” and attacking them repeatedly on social media.
His insistence that CNN end up in friendly hands appears to favor the Paramount bid — even though the Netflix deal would also involve selling off the news network to an as-yet-unknown buyer.
Since David Ellison took over Paramount earlier this year, the company has named journalist Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Weiss is a prominent critic of what she calls bias in mainstream media, and the appointment won praise from conservatives who have long accused mainstream outlets of liberal bias.
Days before Ellison took the reins of CBS, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a late-night staple and major Trump critic, was canceled.
But Trump railed against Paramount and Ellison on Monday, posting on Truth Social that “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP” for allowing an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene, a political ally-turned-critic.
Netflix, by contrast, is closely associated with Democrats, with founder Reed Hastings a major Democratic Party donor.
Trump demands CNN get new owners in Warner bidding war
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Trump demands CNN get new owners in Warner bidding war
- Under Paramount’s offer, CNN would fall into the Ellisons’ hands
Mick Jagger’s fiancee ‘physically attacked’ at exclusive London club
- Melanie Hamrick, 38, dined with a friend before heading to private members’ club Annabel’s in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, where the incident happened
- The author, choreographer and former ballerina has been in a relationship with the 82-year-old Rolling Stones singer since 2014 and they have a 9-year-old son together
LONDON: Melanie Hamrick, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger’s fiancee, said she was attacked at an elite and exclusive private member’s club in Mayfair, central London.
The 38-year-old said the incident on Tuesday at Annabel’s in Berkeley Square had left her heartbroken and shaken.
In a message posted later that night on Instagram, she wrote: “This is incredibly hard to share, but I was physically attacked at Annabel’s Mayfair tonight.
“I’m so thankful to my friends for protecting me. Two people grabbed me from behind and thank God for the good people who stepped in to help me.
“I’m shaken, sad and heartbroken that people can treat each other this way.”
The message was deleted a few hours after it appeared.
Hamrick has been in a relationship with 82-year-old Jagger since 2014, and she confirmed in April last year that they became engaged about two or three years earlier. They have a son, Deveraux, who was born in 2016.
Hamrick is a choreographer, author and former ballerina who performed with the American Ballet Theatre for 15 years before retiring in 2019.
Before the incident on Tuesday, she had dined with a socialite friend, Emma Thynn, before heading to Annabel’s. Sources at the venue said staff were not notified of an attack. The Metropolitan Police said it had not receive any report of an incident, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.
The incident is believed to have taken place outside of the club. In the past few weeks there has been a series of daytime heists targeting luxury goods stores across London. It is not known if the incident involving Hamrick was related to these.
However, the area around the prestigious Berkeley Square has become one of the worst in London, and even in Europe, for robberies and street crime, the Daily Mail said. Official figures show that people in the area were 30 times more likely to fall victim to crime compared with those in other parts of the city, the newspaper added.
Numbers of thefts and robberies, mainly of mobile phones, have tripled in London over the past four years, with tens of thousands of reported cases, particularly in the upmarket Mayfair and St James’s areas.
Organized criminal gangs have reportedly been targeting high-value luxury brands such as Rolex and Yves Saint Laurent across London. Some visitors have even hired private security while visiting the city.
Last month, the Daily Mail reported that Tom Cruise, 63, had abruptly moved out of his £35 million ($47 million) luxury apartment in One Hyde Park, a high-rise in West London, over safety fears.
