Kara Swisher said she plans to leave CNN “as soon as I can,” pointing to Warner Bros. Discovery’s merger with Paramount Skydance and CEO David Ellison. She hopes CNN will let her out of her contract early and reiterated criticisms she made in March.
Kara Swisher didn’t soften her stance on CNN on Tuesday—if anything, she sharpened it.
On the episode of “Pivot” she co-hosts with Scott Galloway, Swisher said she’s planning to step away from the network “as soon as I can,” tying that timeline directly to Warner Bros. Discovery’s parent-company merger with Paramount Skydance and CEO David Ellison.
Swisher explained that because the Paramount takeover of Warner Bros. is moving forward, she doesn’t expect her future at CNN to last much longer. Her hope is that she’ll be released from her contract early.
“With the CNN thing, well you know my feelings on that,” Swisher said. “I’m leaving as soon as I can.”
Galloway immediately confirmed her intent to step away from the news organization.
Swisher went further about why. “Let me try to outline it: I don’t want to work for the Ellisons, and I don’t want to work for their handpicked minions because I think they’re incompetent,” she added. “I just don’t see any way that these people make good decisions and I don’t trust them. That’s it.”
She added that her contract runs “until the end of the year. ” while emphasizing that she wants out sooner so she doesn’t have to affiliate with them. “Anyways. there’s a lot of other options. and I’m under contract with them until the end of the year. and I’m hoping they’ll let me out early because I don’t want to affiliate with them. ” Swisher said.
In her remarks, she also drew a line to past decisions. “I left James Murdoch, too; this is not a new, fresh thing for Kara Swisher to flounce out and do better.”
Her comments on Tuesday were not the first time she raised the prospect of leaving CNN. Back in March. Swisher said she would step away if Paramount—led by David Ellison—succeeded in closing its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. At the time, she argued that Ellison and his billionaire father Larry Ellison have shown “no interest in journalism.”.
“I don’t think they’ll be good owners,” Swisher said in March. “They’ve already shown several times, including editorial choices … that they have no interest in journalism, and I refuse to work for an organization that doesn’t respect journalists.”
Taken together, Swisher’s message is consistent: she’s pressing for an early exit from CNN and pointing to ownership changes tied to David Ellison as the turning point. For now, she’s still contractually tied to the network through the end of the year—while betting she won’t have to wait that long.
Kara Swisher CNN Pivot Scott Galloway David Ellison Larry Ellison Paramount Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery media journalism TV