Kara Swisher declared on the Tuesday episode of her Pivot podcast that she was leaving CNN as soon as legally possible following Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, getting a green light as blue states settled their lawsuit trying to block the deal.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) announced the settlement, which would allow the $111 billion mega-merger to proceed, sparking a bevy of anger on the left. David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, and his billionaire father Larry Ellison are seen as allies of President Donald Trump, who supported their takeover of CBS News and has called for change at CNN.
“In any case, no, my contract, just literally reading my contract today. As you might imagine, when this news struck as I threatened to leave, and I have asked my agent to get me out of my contract. It ends December 31st,” Swisher said in a discussion with her cohost Scott Galloway, adding:
So it’s only a few months, right? I’m just, I just can’t. I just, I thought like I was trying to figure out ways I could work with them in some like licensing way.
But then I thought, f*ck these guys. I don’t want to work for them. I just don’t.
I got too much to do with you, Scott Galloway.
“Kara, let me give you a little insight scoop here,” Gallow replied, adding:
I think there’s a decent likelihood that when you show up to whoever it is you show up to at CNN and say, I want out of my contract, they jump up and say, ‘Congratulations, no problem.’
“No, not at all. You’re wrong. I know you think that. I know you’d like to run me down,” Swisher replied.
“We’ll miss you,” Galloway joked, adding, “Best of luck.”
“No,” Swisher insisted, “Maybe the Ellisons, that’s for sure. But no, they’ve been trying to keep me. Very nicely been trying to keep me, and I have a lot of regard for the executives there now.”
Swisher then listed off some of the people at CNN she respects, including CEO Mark Thompson.
“I am not staying,” she added, arguing, “I have other things that make more money, that matter more, that have a bigger audience.”
“Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out, said anyone with the last name Ellison,” Galloway quipped.
“No, I’m just saying. I just don’t want to work. They don’t want me. I don’t want them, and I have been very explicit,” Swisher said as Galloway continued to roast her a bit.
“I think they are terrible media owners. I’d rather work for Rupert Murdoch,” Swisher insisted.
As the conversation continued, Swisher asked Galloway for his thoughts on the merger.
“Sheer regulatory theater. We decided, as they should have. The two enormous media companies can merge because they need to compete with even more enormous media companies,” Galloway argued, adding:
There was no legal reason to block this merger. Oh, but they extracted from them a promise to make more movies? That’s like letting Goldman and JP Morgan merge if they promised to build more ATMs.
This is– regulators started out saying this is Godzilla, it’s an existential threat to humanity and they settled by saying, we’ll make more movies about Godzilla.
“Yeah, and keep your studios, keep your real estate in Los Angeles,” Swisher agreed.
“This is total weak sauce. This is Rob Bonta deciding he wants to run for governor and giving in to populist bullshit. I don’t like the concentration of media, but the bottom line is when you do the math, and you look at antitrust law, there was no legal leg to stand on here,” Galloway concluded.
Watch the clip above.
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