CNN chief attempts damage control as staff 'freak out' over MAGA-friendly takeover

CNN President Mark Thompson is urging staff not to “jump to conclusions” after news broke that parent company Warner Bros. Discovery will likely be acquired by Paramount Skydance in a blockbuster deal that has left many at the cable news network “panicked.”

According to a report in Fox News Digital, the mood inside CNN on Friday was “horrific” as staffers braced for change following Netflix’s decision to drop its bid and Paramount’s move to acquire the company’s assets, including CNN.

“The mood is horrific,” one CNN insider told Fox. “People are very upset.”

Shortly after Netflix backed out, Thompson sent a memo announcing an internal town hall “to discuss next steps.”

“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Thompson wrote in the Thursday memo, obtained by multiple outlets. “And secondly let’s not forget our duty to our audience.”

He reminded staff that the network remains at the start of “an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad, one that will culminate with critical U.S. midterm elections and who knows what else.”

Still, staffers – from top anchors like Kaitlan Collins, Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper, to rank-and-file producers – have been “freaking out” over the deal, according to the New York Post, as the likelihood of cost-cutting at the network looms.

But the deal doesn’t mean that CNN “will be automatically transformed into a MAGA sounding board,” the Post reported Friday. Insiders cited by the outlet suggest the new owners envision “a more politically centrist” CNN.