Jane Fonda warned that Paramount’s likely acquisition of CNN’s parent company would be bad for workers and the news network’s audience.
Fonda, 88, explained Sunday at Vanity Fair’s Oscars party that she has a “personal stake” in the matter, having been married to CNN founder Ted Turner, 87, from 1991 to 2001.
“The mergers are going to be bad for the workers. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs. We’re going to have higher prices. We’re going to have political control over what we do,” Fonda said when asked about her “Block the Merger” pin.
The actress and liberal activist pointed to how conservatives are looking forward to Paramount taking over CNN. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for instance, said Friday that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”
“We know Trump wants to hurt,” she said.
“I slept with the guy who created [CNN]!” she added. “I have a personal stake in it!”
Fonda said she hasn’t spoken directly to 43-year-old Ellison, but did speak with Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive officer of Netflix. Netflix backed out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, last month, leaving some at CNN feeling “doomed.”
Paramount’s merger with Skydance last year, which the Trump administration had to approve, isn’t a good sign for CNN, Fonda said.
“In order to get the permission to do the merger, they had to cave to what—or they felt they had to cave to what Trump wanted," she said.
Ellison’s overhaul of CBS News since then has resulted in complaints from inside the network—including exiting reporters and correspondents—about its editorial direction.
In December, Trump was looking forward to changes at CNN.
“I don’t think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN—which is a very dishonest group of people—I don’t think that should be allowed to continue,” he said. “I think CNN should be sold along with everything.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Paramount and CNN for comment.
