Jane Fonda Fumes At Trump-Ally Potentially Taking Over CNN: I ‘Slept With the Guy’ Who Founded It

(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Hollywood legend Jane Fonda wore a “Block the Merger” pin to the Vanity Fair Oscars party Sunday, meant to sound the alarm over what an acquisition by David Ellison’s Paramount of Warner Bros. Discovery would mean for CNN.

The 88-year-old was married to CNN founder Ted Turner from 1991 to 2001, and told Variety that the issue for her is deeply personal.

“Yeah, the merger’s gonna be bad for the workers,” Fonda said. “A lot of people are gonna lose their jobs. We’re gonna have higher prices. We’re gonna have political control over over what we do. That’s why [Pete] Hegseth said that — the Secretary of Defense — ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘CNN can’t come soon enough under the control of Paramount.’ Because we know Trump wants to hurt — I slept with the guy who created it! I have a personal stake in it!”

During a Pentagon press conference last week, Hegseth slammed what he called “more fake news from CNN,” adding, “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better!”

Ellison is the billionaire owner of Paramount Skydance, which completed its own Trump-approved merger last summer. Ellison also owns CBS and appointed Bari Weiss to the top spot at CBS News. The result has been an exodus of veteran news people and intense criticism of how the newsroom is being run.

Now, Ellison is poised to grab Warner Bros. Discovery, home to HBO Max and CNN, ever since Netflix dropped out of the bidding war last month. If the proposed $111 billion deal closes, it could have a monumental effect on the direction of news at CNN.

The mood at CNN is said to be “shaken” and” depressing,” according to reports.

“No one wants to work for the Ellisons,” one CNN staffer told NBC News. “And if Bari is going to be running CNN, expect people to leave.”

Fonda said that CNN has always been the most “trusted” news outlet that “did not take positions” on political issues.

“It reported the news,” Fonda said, “and to see what’s happening — and so we have to stop,” she said as she tapped the “Block the Merger” pin.

“The Paramount merger is really problematic, because, they’ve already — in order to get the permission to do the merger…they felt they had to cave to what Trump wanted, which was fire the — anyway — but we’re gonna win! We’re gonna win,” she repeated.

Fonda didn’t give any hints as to how the merger could be stopped at this point.

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