David Ellison took charge of CNN on Tuesday. Two days later, Trump's lawyers stood in a federal courtroom and argued he can keep CNN out of the White House.
Ellison closed the $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery deal on Tuesday and took the keys to the newsroom Trump has been trying to ban since September. Asked about the merger, Trump said: "They're terrific people." Ellison went on the company's livestream with Anderson Cooper the same day, promised CNN "complete editorial independence," and said he backs its fight against the ban.
The lawsuit is the test of that promise. CNN, Politico and MS NOW sued last month after the White House banned them from the building. Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, froze the ban within days. Trump kept CNN, then Politico, off Air Force One anyway. On Thursday morning Kelly heard Trump's lawyers argue the ban should stand, on national security and on "professionalism and decorum," and the government's own lawyer told the judge "We've never argued that this is solely and only because of national security." The newsrooms' lawyer answered that Trump "unambiguously said" the reason was "negative, false, bad, not positive enough reporting." Kelly extended the pause and expects to rule by Tuesday, Oct. 13, possibly earlier.
The company he now runs carries $80 billion of debt. He plans $6 billion in cost cuts, and thousands of people are expected to lose their jobs.
The president praises CNN's new boss. The president controls CNN's access. Ellison is about to cut $6 billion from the company around it. A newsroom in that position is safe exactly as long as the owner's promise holds, and a promise made on a livestream binds nobody. The one test on the record is whether Ellison keeps CNN in the lawsuit, and the first reading comes when Kelly rules.
