Kara Swisher Can’t Wait to Quit CNN After Paramount Merger: ‘F*** These Guys’

Tech reporter Kara Swisher is ready to say goodbye to CNN now that the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery has been given the green light.

Swisher made her intentions clear on the latest episode of her Pivot podcast, telling her cohost Scott Galloway that while she tried to find a way to continue, there is no way she could work for her new bosses, which include Paramount CEO David Ellison.

“I was trying to figure out ways I could work with them in some, like, licensing way. But then I thought, f*** these guys. I don’t want to work for them. I just don’t,” Swisher said, per The Huffington Post, noting that her current contract expires at the end of the year.

Critics and press freedom advocacy groups have warned that the Paramount-WBD merger could negatively affect news media. As part of the deal, Paramount will take ownership of the WBD studios, HBO, HBO Max, and the linear networks, including CNN. Many fear changes at CNN similar to the shake-up at CBS News.

Last year, Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison (a steadfast Trump supporter), merged their company, Skydance Media, with Paramount, bringing CBS News under their control. Ellison quickly put his stamp on the network by hiring Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief, who herself has made sweeping changes across CBS News.

Galloway joked with Swisher that her bosses would probably celebrate her departure. “Maybe the Ellisons, that’s for sure,” Swisher replied, though she said the team at CNN had been fighting to keep her.

On Monday (September 21), Paramount resolved an antitrust lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys, who reached a settlement with the media company. The settlement means the merger can now proceed unopposed, though it requires Paramount to establish a board to ensure editorial independence at both CBS News and CNN.

Swisher expressed doubt about the board, calling it a “toothless” attempt at oversight. “My guess is that it will be larded over with old & crusty media retirees… since no working journalist worth a damn would agree to be monitored by a board of directors whose interests are aligned with ownership,” she wrote on Threads.

Earlier this year, Swisher, who has been a CNN on-air contributor since 2023, promised she would not work for the Ellisons. “I don’t think they’ll be good owners,” Swisher told fellow journalist Margaret Talev during a speaking event at Syracuse University.

“I think they’ve already shown several times, including editorial choices, which Scott [MacFarlane, who left CBS after the Ellisons took over] knows more about than I — though I know a lot, Scott — that they have no interest in journalism,” she added.