The mood inside CNN was “horrific” on Friday as network leadership sought to calm fears of anxious staffers, with parent company Warner Bros. Discovery appearing set to hand control of the network to Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Netflix dropped its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday after the company announced Paramount’s latest bid to buy all of its assets, including CNN, was “superior.” The sale to Paramount would put Ellison — who has a close relationship with President Donald Trump and has angered liberals for installing Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News — in charge of CNN. 

“The mood is horrific,” a CNN insider told Fox News Digital. “People are very upset.” 

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CNN CEO Mark Thompson sent a memo to staffers announcing an internal town hall “to discuss next steps and to answer your questions to the best of our ability.” (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)

A second CNN insider told Fox News Digital that staffers feel “a mix of despair, apprehension and curiosity.”

“Look, I think this is a place that has gone through a lot. A lot of mergers in the past decade. A lot of ‘fresh’ starts,” the CNN insider said. 

“I think there is an underlying fear of mixing two news divisions,” they continued. “Who is gonna get canned?”

While most corporate mergers of this magnitude come with headcount reductions, many CNN staffers are well aware that CBS News has undergone both layoffs and directional changes since Ellison took over last year. Weiss, who was handpicked by Ellison, has bluntly told staffers they are “not producing a product that enough people want.” She has also taken steps to tamp down the liberal slant that was prominent at CBS News before the Ellison takeover.  

Now, CNN may be in the same boat, and the possibility that Weiss will have anything to do with the struggling cable network has spooked staffers, some of whom turned on former CEO Chris Licht when he tried to tamp down CNN’s partisanship that marked the Jeff Zucker era.

Shortly after the news of Netflix backing out broke, current CNN CEO Mark Thompson sent a memo to staffers announcing an internal town hall “to discuss next steps and to answer your questions to the best of our ability.”

CNN staffers are concerned that David Ellison has a cozy relationship with President Donald Trump. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more. And secondly let’s not forget our duty to our audience,” Thompson wrote in the memo obtained by Fox News Digital. 

“We’re still near the start of what is already an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad, one that will culminate with critical U.S. midterm elections and who knows what else,” he continued. “Let’s continue to focus on delivering the best possible journalism to the millions of people who rely on us all around the world.”

While Thompson did his best to quell concerns, the insider also suggested the possibility of talent fleeing CNN ahead of the Ellison takeover if they can afford it. 

A second insider said the two main concerns are “job loss” and “editorial indifference,” noting the former “greatly outranks” the latter. Specifically, CNN staffers worry about a potential “bloodbath” if CBS News and CNN were to merge. 

The first CNN insider has grown accustomed to corporate change — CNN has had several corporate parents over the decades, including Time Warner and AT&T — and understands that Ellison wouldn’t formally have control for quite some time if the acquisition goes through. 

“It won’t close until year end. Maybe longer,” they said. “And between now and then the world will change in major ways. So, when it closes, the lay of the land and their intentions may change … I think it’s best to reserve judgement and be calm and let it all play out.”

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Paramount owner David Ellison tapped Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News and acquired her outlet, The Free Press. CNN staffers are now concerned CBS News will be merged with the cable network.  (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images; James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images; Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press)

Meanwhile, CNN has largely embraced anti-Trump programming for much of the last decade, and the president has responded by publicly criticizing the network on a regular basis. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ellison told Trump officials that he’d make sweeping changes to CNN if he became its owner. 

The first CNN insider is trying to keep an “open mind” but said it’s easy to understand why staffers are upset given the reporting on Ellison and Trump discussing changes. 

“It’s existential for the brand to be owned by an individual who has personal allegiance to a political figure and is not even answering to public markets,” they told Fox News Digital. 

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“But — I mean what I’m saying. It’s not just me trying to take a deep breath. I truly believe we can only react to what is, not what might be,” they continued. “And we have no idea what the world will look like when this closes.”

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