Paramount takeover places CNN and CBS under common ownership
The company says a new board will safeguard editorial independence, but critics question how effective it can be when its members answer to the company’s board.
Paramount Skydance has completed its roughly US$110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, placing CNN and CBS News under common corporate ownership. The deal combines major studios, television networks and streaming services, while drawing scrutiny over the future independence of the two newsrooms.
Skydance says it will establish a five-member News Editorial Independence Board within 180 days. The board is intended to set editorial principles and address disputes between the news networks and corporate management. Its members are to be journalists with at least 10 years’ experience, appointed by and reporting to Skydance’s board of directors.
Those arrangements have prompted questions about the board’s authority and transparency. The reported terms allow two members to belong to the same political party and do not require the board to publish its findings. Critics say those provisions could limit its ability to shield coverage from corporate or political influence.
Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation questioned whether a board appointed by the company could provide meaningful independence. He also argued that government enforcement of the settlement’s conditions could itself raise press freedom concerns.
Chairman and chief executive David Ellison says CNN and CBS News will remain editorially independent. Skydance has also said Mark Thompson will remain CNN’s chairman and editor-in-chief, while Bari Weiss will continue as CBS News’s editor-in-chief.
The deal followed legal challenges by state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America. The cases were settled in September with commitments that included protections for the news networks, but the effectiveness of those protections remains unestablished.
