One roof for CNN and CBS: $111bn Paramount-Warner deal sparks fears for press freedom

LOS ANGELES: Two of America's most watched newsrooms now answer to one family. Paramount Skydance has closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal with an equity value of about $81 billion and a total value of about $111 billion including debt, bringing CNN and CBS News under the same roof. David Ellison runs the combined company; his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, supplied much of the financial muscle, alongside investors from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The legal path cleared on September 30, when U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin approved Paramount's settlement with 12 state attorneys general who had sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds. In exchange for dropping the case, Paramount committed to release 30 films a year in theatres and to establish a news editorial independence board to support continued independence at CBS News and CNN.

On paper, the safeguard is detailed: the board must be set up within 180 days of closing, with five established journalists, active or retired, each with at least 10 years of experience, resolving disputes over alleged bias and monitoring independence from ownership and shareholders, with no more than two members affiliated with the same political party. Members, however, will be appointed by Paramount's own board of directors.

That appointment clause is why press-freedom advocates remain uneasy. Wire reports on the merger have raised questions about the chairman's family ties to President Trump and to Israel, and about what such proximity means for editorial independence at two networks that must scrutinise the White House. Protests accompanied the deal for months in the United States and Europe before regulators allowed it through.

The combined library, 15,000 films from Harry Potter and the DC Universe to Mission Impossible and The Godfather, explains the entertainment logic. The news logic is harder. An independence board can hear a complaint after a story is softened or spiked. It cannot easily prove the story that was never assigned. For viewers of CNN and CBS, the merger's real test starts now, in the running order no settlement can write.