‘I’m Not Working for You Hacks!’ Kara Swisher Vows to Leave CNN If the Ellisons Buy It

CNN’s Kara Swisher vowed to leave the network if Paramount Skydance successfully acquires its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, during an event at Syracuse University on Monday.

Swisher’s comments came after Professor Margaret Talev wound up to ask a question: “So speaking of business, we’ve been talking about what political reporters, how they might adjust the way they cover the beat to meet the moment in terms of technology. There’s also the business of journalism, which is quite impacted by technology, by AI, by the splintering because of social media, but also-”

“By the purchasing of media by technology billionaires,” interjected Swisher before asking, “Do you understand what they’re doing?”

She proceeded to praise Scott McFarlane, who served as master of ceremonies at the event, for leaving CBS News, which was recently acquired by Larry and David Ellison as part of the Paramount Skydance merger. McFarlane announced on Monday that he was joining MeidasTouch, a progressive media company that began as Democratic political action committee.

“Scott, good move. You’ll love it out here, it’s much better. You don’t wanna work for the Ellisons, I’ve spent a lot of time with Larry Ellison and he’s a terrible person,” insisted Swisher.

“OK, so you recently said that you would leave CNN if Paramount won the bidding for Warner Bros. perhaps as soon as the new series airs,” observed Talev after regaining the floor. “So is that a for sure thing? Is there a scenario in which you would stay anyway?”

“I don’t see how,” replied Swisher.

“Why? Tell us,” implored Talev.

Swisher complied:

Well, it’s interesting, because they’ve been calling me. They’ve been very nice. They’re like, “Hey, Kara, good show with Matt Belloni.” They’re doing a lot of friendly friendly with me right now, which is like too bad, it’s not going to work. It’s not going to happen for you, as I say. They-, I don’t think they’ll be good owners. I don’t. I think they’ve already shown several times — including editorial choices, which Scott knows more about than I, though I know a lot, Scott — that they have no interest in journalism. And I refuse to work for an organization that doesn’t respect journalists. And I don’t mean not cutting. Listen, I got out of journalism because I understood the costs were too high, and I could make a lot more money if I did it in a more efficient, more digital way. And I think a lot of the legacy organizations have been really stubborn in terms of understanding what’s going on. That’s not my issue. There has to be cuts. The costs are out of line with he audience, right? That’s just the way it is. That’s not how you do it.

It’s a basic, like, disdain for it as anything useful. That there’s not a way to reform it except for hiring someone who isn’t a journalist. I’m sorry, I just don’t-, there’s no reason for me to do that. And on some level, I don’t have to because I’ve created my own media organization where I make a lot of money. So I don’t have to. And so for me stand up to say, I’m not working for you hacks, I’m just not doing it, and it’s not worth it to me. Especially in a business, television, which is the audiences are going like this and aging like this. So, I do a lot better direct to consumer kind of thing. And so it just doesn’t hurt me because I can wander over to MS if I feel like having a television, I can wander anywhere else. But it doesn’t matter because I reach, right now, Pivot has a bigger demo in the 25-to-45 range than all the cable networks in prime time, right?

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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