CLOSER TO THE EDGE OFFERS $112 BILLION FOR CNN

April 26, 2026

To the Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
230 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10003

Dear Shareholders:

On behalf of Closer to the Edge, an independent gonzo journalism publication headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, I am writing to submit a formal offer to acquire the Cable News Network (CNN) and all associated assets currently held by Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., in connection with the pending acquisition of the company by Paramount Skydance.

Closer to the Edge hereby offers the sum of One Hundred Twelve Billion Dollars ($112,000,000,000.00) for CNN, its brand assets, broadcast infrastructure, international distribution agreements, and all personnel currently employed by the network. This offer exceeds the total consideration offered by Paramount Skydance for the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. by One Billion Dollars ($1,000,000,000.00).

We will be direct about what we are actually buying.

It is not the building. It is not the logo. It is not the satellite uplink infrastructure or the licensing agreements or whatever remains of the linear cable business after a decade of managed decline. We are buying Donie O’Sullivan, his editorial instincts, his crew, and the journalism they have been producing together under the banner of Devoted — the only show on your network that is honestly reckoning with what this country has become.

That is the asset. Everything else is overhead.

Mr. O’Sullivan is the host and driving editorial force behind Devoted, CNN’s documentary series in which he embeds with Americans who are searching for meaning, community, and truth in a country that has lost its institutional footing. He has spent a decade at CNN covering misinformation, conspiracy theories, and the fringes of American political culture — not from a safe distance, but from inside. He reported live from the Capitol grounds on January 6th. He traveled to Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium and brought a cybersecurity expert to debunk Lindell’s claims in real time. He does not observe. He goes.

If you only have time to watch one episode we highly recommend “American Kayfabe,” from Season One of Devoted. You can find the series at cnn.com/devoted. Find that episode. Watch it before you vote on this merger.

The premise: in the age of Donald Trump and the attention economy, American politics has ceased to function as policy debate and begun operating as professional wrestling — a performance governed by an unspoken agreement that no one breaks character. Mr. O’Sullivan’s response to this premise was not to write a column about it. He embedded with a group of absurdist protesters outside a federal immigration detention facility in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and he filmed what happened when people decided that the only way to fight the show was to become part of it.

We have a direct editorial interest in what he filmed. We were there alongside Robby Roadsteamer, a man in a giraffe costume who was arrested, subsequently jailed, and forced to watch Dane Cook movies. Mr. O’Sullivan filmed it from one angle. We reported it from another. The fact that we arrived at the same story by different roads is not a coincidence. It is evidence that the story is real, that it matters, and that the journalists covering it are doing their jobs.

“American Kayfabe” is a must-watch for one reason above all others: it takes absurdist political resistance seriously without condescending to it or flattening it into a quirky cable news segment. It asks whether the tools of spectacle — costume, performance, provocation, the willingness to be ridiculous in public on purpose — constitute a legitimate form of political resistance when the institutions of legitimate political resistance have been captured or discredited. It does not answer the question cheaply. It sits with it. That is not what cable news does. That is what journalism does, when journalism is working.

Mr. O’Sullivan’s crew made it work.

This brings us to the matter at hand. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has publicly stated that he looks forward to the day David Ellison takes over CNN. David Ellison has reportedly promised administration officials sweeping editorial changes at the network as a condition of regulatory approval. The Wall Street Journal reported these assurances. No one has denied them.

We ask the shareholders to think carefully about what sweeping changes means for a series hosted by a journalist who embedded with protesters outside a federal immigration detention facility and treated their work as worthy of serious documentary attention.

Closer to the Edge does not have relationships with the Trump administration. We do not have cloud computing contracts with the Air Force. We have not promised anyone anything about CNN’s editorial direction. We have not hired Bari Weiss. We have covered the same streets, the same detention facilities, the same protesters, and we have done so without interference from any government, corporation, or billionaire with a government contract.

In the event this offer is rejected, we request as a secondary matter that CNN release Mr. O’Sullivan and his production team from their contractual obligations so that we may negotiate with them directly. Their continued employment at a Paramount-owned CNN represents a misallocation of some of the most important journalistic assets currently operating in the United States. We are prepared to correct this.

Your network is for sale. The journalism inside it does not have to go down with it. We are asking you to consider the difference.

Respectfully submitted,

Rook T. Winchester
Editor, Publisher, and Primary Writer
Closer to the Edge
St. Paul, Minnesota

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