How a lot will NCS’s editorial line shift to the appropriate? Will the revered American information community evolve right into a model of the pro-Trump Fox News? These are the considerations of many NCS workers, in mild of the community’s acquisition by Paramount Skydance, owned by David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison, founding father of the tech big Oracle and a buddy of President Trump.
As a part of a deal value $111 billion, Paramount Skydance is anticipated to finish, within the coming interval, the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, NCS’s guardian firm, even though Netflix had additionally made a proposal to buy the corporate.
The Ellison household advances into American media
Given the Ellison household’s push into American media, the fears of NCS workers usually are not unfounded. They fear that Paramount Skydance’s Trump-friendly possession will alter NCS’s politically liberal identification and proceed with job cuts. The considerations are justified: since David Ellison bought Paramount, merging it along with his firm, Skydance, in August 2025, the corporate has been accused of caving to Trump.
Paramount paid the American president $16 million to settle a lawsuit he had filed towards the historic CBS program 60 Minutes, which additionally belongs to it, over the enhancing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that, in line with Trump, defamed him.
The identical program had additionally quickly suspended the published of a report a couple of jail in El Salvador to which the Trump administration had despatched some migrants deported from the US.
In addition, Paramount cancelled the favored late-night present The Late Show with host Stephen Colbert, a program extremely essential of Trump, saying it could cease airing after May.
NCS: “An outstanding brand,” in line with its new proprietor
In an interview, David Ellison maintained that NCS would stay an impartial journalistic group and that, simply as CBS had retained its independence, NCS would do the identical, describing it as “an outstanding brand” with an distinctive workforce of journalists, “which we will continue to support.”
It is value noting that the US launched its assault on Iran sooner or later after Paramount Skydance was confirmed because the successful bidder within the NCS acquisition course of.
“Fake NCS News,” in line with Trump
Despite assurances from Ellison and NCS CEO Mark Thompson that the community wouldn’t be affected by political strain, “Politicians have an obvious motive to challenge the journalism that asks questions, but at NCS, our only interest is to tell the truth,” Thompson wrote in a put up, two weeks after Paramount Skydance received the bid, the White House issued a press release accusing NCS of “lying” in its protection of the US warfare with Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sharply criticized a NCS report on how the Trump administration had did not foresee the warfare’s impression on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway by way of which 20% of the world’s oil passes. “The sooner David Ellison takes over this network, the better,” Hegseth concluded.
Trump has claimed that the folks operating NCS “are a disgrace” and that it’s crucial to promote the community, which he has referred to as “Fake News NCS” for greater than a decade. In February, Trump referred to as Kaitlan Collins, NCS’s lead White House correspondent, “the worst reporter” when she requested him in regards to the information of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He scolded her as a result of, “even though he has known her for ten years, he has never seen her smile.” NCS backed the journalist, describing her as excellent at her work.
NCS and CBS: Parallel lives
Although the White House’s present assaults on NCS really feel like extra of the identical, there’s now, as one NCS worker advised the Washington Post anonymously, fearing for his or her job, “a big asterisk” over the community’s future, in mild of the brand new possession.
Another colleague mentioned they have been extra anxious about the opportunity of mismanagement ought to NCS come below the management of the present head of CBS News, Bari Weiss, a former New York Times columnist and fierce opponent of “woke” tradition.
Weiss, who was appointed to her place by Ellison and has been publicly praised by Trump, has already clashed with CBS as she tries to reshape the information group within the first six months of her tenure.
The former movie producer within the function of media mogul
Until final yr, NCS’s new proprietor, David Ellison, 43, was a Hollywood producer — energetic within the business for 20 years. In 2006, he co-founded Skydance Media along with his billionaire father and financed commercially profitable movie franchises resembling Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, and Top Gun.
When the historic movie studio Paramount confronted critical monetary difficulties in 2024 and commenced searching for potential consumers, the youthful Ellison stepped in as its savior.