President Trump said Sunday he thinks CBS has “great potential” following the summer merger between CBS parent company Paramount and David Ellison’s Skydance, putting the son of a close Trump ally at the helm of the media corporation.
Earlier this month, Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, purchased Bari Weiss’ news website “The Free Press” and installed it As the new editor in chief of CBS News.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump commented on recent changes at CBS News and asked the gathered press who they thought would become the next lead anchor at CBS.
“Norah O’Donnell, no, I don’t believe it,” Trump said in a light-hearted tone.
status news informed Weiss had lunch Friday with O’Donnell, who “has emerged as the new boss’s favorite,” according to The New York Post. informed,
Trump praised the Ellison pair and said he was confident they would “do the right thing.”
“But, I will tell you what, Larry Ellison is great, and his son, David, is great. They’re my friends. They’re big supporters of mine. And they’ll do the right thing. They’re going to make CBS, hopefully they’ll do that –”, Trump told reporters before cutting himself off.
“And there’s a lot of potential. CBS has a lot of potential,” Trump said.
A controversial figure in the media and an outspoken critic of the mainstream press, Weiss founded The Free Press after leaving The New York Times as a columnist, criticizing the newspaper and other major news outlets for what she described as groupthink and bias.
At CBS News, Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, advocate for core values across all platforms and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers news,” Paramount said in an announcement last week.
The Hill has contacted CBS News for comment.
