{
  "id": 9839463,
  "title": "David Ellison attends same dinner at White House that CNN was barred from",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/25/david-ellison-attends-same-dinner-at-white-house-that-cnn-was-barred",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-25T14:31:33.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The A.V. Club",
    "slug": "the-a-v-club",
    "url": "https://www.avclub.com/david-ellison-white-house-state-dinner-cnn"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance (and soon-to-be, Warner Bros. Discovery), attended a White House State Dinner alongside Supreme Court justices, business leaders, and prominent figures. This occurred while CNN was barred from covering the event, as a judge had previously reinstated their access but only after some reporters were able to enter the press pool in the afternoon. Despite this, CNN reports that two of its reporters, along with colleagues from MS NOW, were initially blocked from attending the event on Thursday night. White House reporter Kaitlan Collins shared a list of attendees on X, with Ellison dining alongside tech leaders Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, as well as Fox News hosts Bret Baier, Laura Ingraham, and Jesse Watters. The dinner aimed to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping, although the presence of Ellison and other wealthy tech and tech-adjacent businesspeople suggests the event was useful for networking and securing merger approvals.",
  "summary": "MS NOW was also denied access to the state dinner welcoming Xi Jinping.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}