WASHINGTON, D.C. — Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders are scheduled to vote Thursday on a proposed merger with Paramount Skydance that, if approved and cleared by federal regulators, would place CBS News and CNN under one corporate roof. Glass Lewis urged investors to vote in favor of the merger earlier this month.

Paramount Skydance is led by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is a key ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. Ellison has promised Trump sweeping changes at CNN if the deal is completed. Trump has frequently attacked CNN.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey called on Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to investigate foreign investment tied to the merger. The deal includes investment from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as from China. The Competition and Markets Authority is set to launch an investigation into the transaction.

Paramount Skydance has already made changes at its existing news operations. The company appointed Bari Weiss, who had no prior television experience, to lead its broadcast network, and installed Ken Weinstein, a former Trump administration appointee, as an ombudsman tasked with policing bias. The network announced last month that it would cease operations for its news radio service, which accounts for 6 percent of that division's workforce. Justice correspondent Scott McFarlane left the network before the merger.

The vote comes as consolidation reshapes local and national television news. The $6.2 billion Tegna-Nexstar merger was approved by shareholders in November and has the blessing of Trump. Nexstar, which operates a cable network called NewsNation, has staffed up with former Fox personalities and is trending right. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns stations in 85 different markets, in 2018 forced anchors across nearly 200 stations to read a script pushing Trump's talking points on the state of the U.S. media.

Mergers of local news operators have faced antitrust scrutiny in the past. In 2018, the FCC blocked a proposed merger between Tribune Media and Sinclair by sending it into a lengthy regulatory review and calling for divestiture of certain stations. Tribune Media later merged with Nexstar, bypassing Sinclair, to become the largest affiliate operator in the U.S. On Truth Social in February, Trump said "We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks."