CNN star Anderson Cooper has privately told colleagues he does not want to work for CBS News boss Bari Weiss if she is ultimately put in charge of the cable network following Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to a report.
Cooper has made his feelings known internally as Paramount chief executive David Ellison weighs whether to give Weiss oversight of both CBS News and CNN once the roughly $111 billion merger closes, the New York Times reported.
Cooper’s reported opposition comes as other top CNN figures are also signaling resistance to a potential Weiss-led future.
According to the Times, CNN chief executive Mark Thompson has told Paramount officials he will not share oversight of the network with another executive, while longtime anchor Jake Tapper recently met with Ellison in Los Angeles.
The Times said it was not known what the two men discussed.
The report says Ellison remains supportive of Weiss despite months of upheaval at CBS News, where she has overseen a sweeping overhaul of the news division since taking over as editor-in-chief last year.
One option under consideration would pair Weiss with a seasoned television executive responsible for the operational and financial side of the combined news organizations while she retained editorial oversight, according to the Times.
Cooper’s reported comments come after his own complicated history with Weiss at CBS News.
Earlier this year, Weiss approached Cooper about succeeding Norah O’Donnell as anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” according to previous reports. Cooper declined the offer, and the job ultimately went to Tony Dokoupil.
Not long afterward, Cooper also chose not to renew his contract with “60 Minutes,” ending a nearly two-decade run as a correspondent for the iconic newsmagazine while remaining at CNN.
Publicly, Cooper said he wanted to devote more time to his family and his work at CNN.
But multiple reports indicated he was also uncomfortable with the direction of CBS News under Weiss following the departures of longtime “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and other senior journalists.
Weiss’s tenure has been defined by one of the most turbulent periods in CBS News history.
Following Owens’ resignation over what he described as growing corporate interference in editorial decisions, Weiss dismissed executive producer Tanya Simon, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, senior executive producer Draggan Mihailovich, veteran producer Guy Campanile and digital operations chief Matthew Polevoy as part of a sweeping restructuring of “60 Minutes.”
The shakeup culminated in the firing of veteran correspondent Scott Pelley after he publicly confronted Weiss and newly installed executive producer Nick Bilton, accusing Weiss of “murdering” “60 Minutes” and saying she had been “brought in to kill it.”
The uncertainty has now spread to CNN as Ellison moves closer to completing the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The Times reported that veteran CNN executive Amy Entelis has become a sounding board for anxious anchors and correspondents concerned about the network’s future, while technology journalist Kara Swisher said she would stop working with CNN if Ellison replaced Thompson, citing the upheaval at CBS News.
CNN referred The Post to Paramount for comment.
The Post has sought comment from Paramount, Cooper, Weiss and Thompson.
