Plan for editorial oversight board at CNN and CBS News draws skepticism: ‘Utter garbage’

An editorial oversight board must be set up within 180 days after the closing of the merger deal between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery. Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenAn editorial oversight board must be set up within 180 days after the closing of the merger deal between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery. Photograph: Kevin Carter/Getty ImagesCNNPlan for editorial oversight board at CNN and CBS News draws skepticism: ‘Utter garbage’Some network employees and media-watchers have questions and concerns about how arrangement will work

Leading media figures and insiders dismissed plans to create an editorial oversight board to protect CNN’s independence as “utter garbage” – in one staffer’s words – after a settlement was reached to resolve a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 12 states to block Paramount’s $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.

California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, during a press conference to announce the settlement, said that Paramount “must establish a news editorial independence board to support CBS News and CNN’s continued editorial independence to ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting at CBS News and at CNN”.

In a legal motion to formally end the case, the companies said the news editorial independence board would “establish guiding editorial and journalism principles for the combined entity’s news channels”.

According to the terms of the settlement, the board must be established within 180 days of the closing of the deal. It will be composed of five current or former journalists with at least 10 years of experience each and will be appointed by the board of the company for three-year terms.

The board will be tasked with “resolving any disputes between CBS News employees, CNN employees and management of the combined entity regarding alleged violations of the news editorial principles”; “resolving any disputes between CBS News employees, CNN employees and management of the combined entity regarding alleged reporting bias or failure to meet agreed reporting fairness standards”; and “establishing and monitoring adherence to ethical journalism as defined by journalism industry best practices and to editorial independence, including from the combined entity’s ownership and shareholders”.

Critics of the mega-merger had expressed concerns about CNN being taken over by the Ellison family, which has well-documented connections to the Trump administration. David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, have reportedly spoken with the White House about potential changes they might make at CNN, which could ultimately generate more positive coverage of the Trump administration, a prospect that has worried journalists at the cable news network.

On Monday afternoon, there was already some skepticism within the media industry – including from current and former employees at the companies involved in the deal – about whether the editorial oversight board would actually protect CNN’s editorial integrity.

“There is no way that is going to work,” former CNN anchor Jim Acosta said. “They will start to fire anchors and certain folks to send a message, and the rest will either have to fall in line or leave. This was a colossal mistake.”

“I’m happy to hear more about this, but how a board works day to day is tough to wrap my head around,” said a CNN producer who was not authorized to comment.

Jessica J González, the co-chief executive of the advocacy organization Free Press, expressed doubts about the effectiveness of an oversight board.

“As we learned from the failed and widely panned Facebook oversight board, a fake bipartisan oversight committee won’t save CNN,” she said in a statement on Monday. “We have all the evidence we need from the Ellisons’ destruction of CBS about what they do to warp journalism at Donald Trump’s request.”