Tech journalist Kara Swisher told listeners of her podcast “Pivot” on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, that she is done at CNN — after a settlement with state attorneys general removed the final legal obstacle to Paramount’s purchase of the network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

“I was just literally reading my contract today, as you might imagine, when this news struck, because I threatened to leave,” Swisher said on the episode, speaking with co-host Scott Galloway. “I have asked my agent to get me out of my contract. It ends December 31st.”

The Settlement That Cleared the Way

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by attorneys general from 11 other states, announced on Monday, September 21, that they had reached a settlement resolving their antitrust suit against Paramount, the action that had been holding up the deal. Bonta said the agreement should not be read as a blessing of the merger. Under its terms, Paramount must create an independent editorial board to police journalistic standards at both CNN and CBS News, and must commit to a minimum number of film releases each year. A judge has set a hearing on the settlement.

Swisher was unimpressed by the oversight panel, calling it “dingbat nonsense” and pointing to the board created to watch over The Wall Street Journal after Rupert Murdoch bought the newspaper in 2007. Writing on Threads, she predicted the new body would fill up with retired media figures, on the theory that no serious working journalist would accept monitoring by directors whose interests line up with the owners’.

Galloway was no kinder to the deal the states struck. He argued that the case had no real legal footing to begin with, mocked the concessions regulators extracted — comparing a pledge to release more movies to waving through a merger of two Wall Street banks in exchange for additional ATMs — and dismissed the outcome as theater.

A Threat First Made in June

Swisher, a CNN contributor since 2023, has not hidden where this was heading. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery struck their deal in February, and by June she was vowing to walk if it closed, branding Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, incompetent. The elder Ellison, a major donor to President Donald Trump, helped bankroll the acquisition. Trump has welcomed the takeover and has repeatedly derided CNN’s reporting on his administration.

Her objection is also rooted in what has happened at the company’s other newsroom. Bari Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025, and since then journalists including Anderson Cooper, Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega have either resigned or been fired from “60 Minutes,” whose ratings have slid over the same stretch. Swisher cited that decline in a Threads post, saying she has no interest in being managed by the CBS News operation — least of all if it expands into CNN. Swisher and Weiss overlapped for nearly two years in The New York Times opinion section but, by published accounts, have never met in person; Swisher has also been reported to have once dated Weiss’ wife, Free Press co-founder Nellie Bowles.

Unease Inside the Newsroom

Inside CNN, staffers worry that the new owners will move fast to cut jobs once the deal closes, and top on-air talent is reportedly anxious about what comes next. CNN CEO Mark Thompson has said he wants to stay and make himself useful to the incoming owners. Paramount Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim, speaking at a Politico summit, said David Ellison intends to steer the network back toward news — a formulation that landed at CNN as a signal of significant change.

Galloway needled his co-host on the podcast, suggesting CNN would leap at the chance to tear up her deal. Swisher rejected that flatly. Executives have been trying, and trying nicely, to keep her, she said, and she holds the current leadership in high regard. She simply will not work for the new owners. “I’d rather work for Rupert Murdoch,” she said.

Plenty to Do Off Cable

Swisher, 63, arrives at the exit with a crowded calendar. She is editor-at-large at New York Magazine, hosts the interview podcast “On with Kara Swisher,” co-hosts and produces “Pivot” and performs live events. Her byline has appeared frequently in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Her CNN work included the six-part original series “Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever,” which premiered in April. Other projects, she said on the podcast, pay better, matter more and reach a bigger audience.

The transaction has drawn political fire beyond the podcast studio, with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani blasting the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal as corrupt. For Swisher, the remaining question is timing, not intent. She acknowledged she cannot walk out the door yet, but said she will go the moment she can.