David Ellison has been targeted with a very public protest after a small plane could be seen flying a banner over the Paramount lot in Los Angeles that read, “Ellison is Trump’s b---h.”
A Reddit user said the plane was “circling the Paramount lot,” pulling the banner behind it. Ellison, the CEO of Skydance Paramount and the son of media tycoon Larry Ellison, has used his ever-widening industry reach to force the mainstream into MAGA-friendly territory. Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount resulted in a CBS News’ MAGA makeover under Free Press founder Bari Weiss.
Critics believe that the pending merger, which needed approval from Trump’s FCC, led Paramount to ax Trump foe Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.
Ellison now has his sights set on sealing his deal to acquire Warner Bros., which, in addition to Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, and Paramount Pictures, would also bring CNN under his umbrella. Ellison plans to put Weiss in charge of the news network, according to reports, if the deal moves past its legal challenges.
In the meantime, despite throwing a party to “honor” Donald Trump, Ellison insisted in an op-ed published in The New York Times last month that his personal politics will not dictate newsroom decisions.
“The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, I can’t give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views.”
Those opposed to the $111 billion merger were not persuaded—and neither was whoever funded the flying anti-Ellison message.
Representatives of the Block the Merger coalition were seen protesting outside the Paramount lot on Thursday, but have denied responsibility for the plane. The group told Variety they were at the lot to “thank state attorneys general for holding firm in their lawsuit to block the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, and to call on them to continue resisting what they have called Paramount ‘blackmail.’”
