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While addressing employees last month, CNN chief executive Mark Thompson wasted little time bringing up “the generously proportioned elephant in the room.” Paramount’s imminent takeover of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery had made for a “difficult period” at the network, and Thompson shared his staff’s anxieties. “I swear to God, I go home and try and relax and I can still feel the tension in the room because I’m in the room, and I’m no different from anyone else,” he said, according to a recording of his remarks.

Thompson’s comments came at the outset of a town hall for CNN’s global workforce of roughly 4,000 employees across more than three-dozen bureaus, many of whom are now well practiced in navigating corporate mergers. Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of WBD, which was approved by the Department of Justice last month, marks the third time in the past eight years the network will be absorbed into a new entity. In 2018, AT&T bought CNN’s former parent company, Time Warner, before spinning off its media properties and merging them with Discovery four years later. But the Paramount deal is more politically fraught and operationally complex, bringing together major Hollywood studios (Paramount and Warner Bros.), streaming services (HBO Max and Paramount ), and news organizations (CNN and CBS News) under the same corporate ownership. Significant cuts and layoffs are expected as part of the consolidation, particularly with Paramount shouldering nearly $80 billion in debt.

Inside CNN, staffers fear that programming and personnel changes could be driven by politics as much as economics given how eager Donald Trump and his allies appear for Paramount CEO David Ellison to take control. In March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “the sooner” Ellison steps in “the better,” while FCC chair Brendan Carr framed CNN’s future ownership as part of how Trump is “winning” against the “fake news media.” The following month, the president spoke for nearly an hour at a private, Ellison-hosted dinner “honoring the Trump White House.” Meanwhile, Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, reportedly told Trump that the merger could lead to an overhaul of CNN. Paramount denied to The Wall Street Journal that the Ellisons made any “commitments” to government officials “regarding the future of CNN or any other news property, other than the goal to deliver truth-based journalism,” and a White House spokesperson said Trump “has consistently maintained that he was neutral to all parties throughout the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding process.”

Staffers are skeptical, with some anticipating that the new owners will try to placate the White House. “At the end of the day,” said one longtime on-air reporter, “Trump is going to want some heads on a plate.” Another employee suggested that any politically motivated........

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