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The first rule about Flight Club: UFC President and CEO Dana White and CEO of Paramount Skydance David Ellison attend the UFC 329 event on July 11, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!

In tonight’s edition, Paramount CEO David Ellison went on the front foot Tuesday with an op-ed in The New York Times that was a full-throated defense of his acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Below we reveal the backstory to how the opinion piece came to be, who helped write it, and what it shows about just how much is at stake both in terms of money and power in the deal that will not be decided till next year. We also hear from a number of CNN staffers gauging their reaction to Ellison’s piece, with one describing the essay as “unconvincing.”

Also, ABC News’s Standards department has called a top correspondent in for a talking to after they interviewed a former colleague, the Financial Times poaches the deputy editor of a well-known magazine, Semafor hosts a shindig to fete its business podcast and the latest on our $1,000 offer to Oliver Darcy to be the exclusive tea-bag sponsor of his upcoming event. 

Finally, we have a bumper reading, listening and watching list to ensure you can enjoy the last few weeks of summer and not miss any media news.

Mentioned tonight: Ari Emanuel, Mike Bloomberg, Dana White, Ron Galotti, Piers Morgan, David Ellison, Tina Brown, Bari Weiss, Trevor Phillips, Ed Cumming, Jeff Bezos, Stu Loeser, Jamie Heller, Keith Cocozza, Seema Mody, Scott Wapner, Joele Frank, Tony Fratto, Ed Elson, Lorie Acio, Shane O’Neill, Dylan Wells, Erik Wemple, Adam O’Neal, Kai Bird, Susan Goldmark, Justin Fox, Oliver Darcy, Cate Brown, Aaron Davis, Joel Schectman, Byron Tau, Kevin Delaney, Rachyl Jones, Liz Hoffman, Matthew Syed, Maggie Harrison Dupré, Emma Loffhagen, Jerry Falade, Kevin Baillie, Callum Borchers, Laura Ingraham, David Yelland, Rohan Goswami, Patrick Lenihan, Justin Smith, Daniel Thomas, Ginia Bellafante, Nicole LePera, Michael Savage, Rod Liddle, Freddy Gray, Andrew Deck, David Sullivan, Tony Livesey, Devlin Barrett, Matthew Cole, Keith Bass, Chris Best, Jeff Stein, Ben Smith, Shelly Banjo, Maxi Tani, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Katie Robertson, Rob Copeland, Ben Mullin, Maureen Farrell, Sarah Krouse, Josh Dawsey, Telis Demos, Matt Levine, Nabila Ahmed, Jesse Eisinger, Sarah Ellison, Oliver Barnes, Andrew Cole, Sarah Meron, Andrew Williams, Peter Schottenfels, Allie Garfinkle, Dorie Chevlen, Jason Arday, Lanre Bakare, Charlotte Tobitt, Stuart A. Thompson, Janine Gibson, Harry Mance, Howard Blum, and more.

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Paramount’s Op-Ed Puppeteer

(Exclusive.) On Tuesday, The New York Times published an op-ed by Paramount CEO David Ellison with the headline: “The Critics Are Wrong About My Politics.”

“I believe that anyone who oversees a news organization — I am chief executive of Paramount, which owns CBS — shouldn’t put a finger on the scale, especially on matters involving his own company,” Ellison wrote. “So, when California’s attorney general, 11 other state attorneys general and, a day later, the Writers Guild of America sued to stop the deal, I stayed quiet. I quickly learned such restraint has costs. While I was silent, others were happy to write my story for me. No more.”

This is now the second op-ed in a week giving a full-throated defence to Paramount’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. The first was from podcaster Ari Emanuel, who wrote an essay in the Wall Street Journal titled “Paramount-Warner Merger Could Save Hollywood.” (Conveniently, Emanuel – who is about to release his memoir that was written with the help of a ghostwriter – did not disclose that his cage fighting company received $7 billion from Ellison for the rights to the UFC). 

“I believe this fight is not really about market share,” Ellison continued with the fight club theme. “If it were, it wouldn’t have been reviewed and approved by regulators reflecting 65 countries, including the United States, the European Union and China. I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news. The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.”

So who spearheaded Ellison’s op-ed, helped write it, and was instrumental in it appearing in The Times? Breaker has learned that it was Democratic Party donor and fundraiser…

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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.

What Would You Do?

(Exclusive.) He’s the host of the hit ABC Show “What Would You Do?” But ABC News correspondent John Quiñones may have been asking himself “what have I done?” after being hauled into ABC’s Standards department last week.

Quiñones had just days earlier interviewed …

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The rest of this newsletter is for paid subscribers.

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⁘ As credited in The New York Times, CNBC, Axios, The New York Post, CNN, Bloomberg, The Guardian, and more.

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