Talks about an editorial committee began before suit to block deal was filed
By Jessica Toonkel
Paramount in recent months has discussed creating an editorial board for CNN and other safeguards to ease concerns over its news operation's independence, according to people familiar with the situation.
Paramount, which owns CBS News, has agreed to buy CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery for $81 billion. The internal discussions about establishing an oversight committee for news have come up as the company has planned for the deal's closing, the people said.
The deal is now on hold as an antitrust lawsuit filed by California and 11 other states winds its way through the federal court system; a trial is scheduled for March. The plaintiffs allege that combining Warner and Paramount would give one company too much power over theatrical movie distribution and cable television.
Paramount's discussions about creating an editorial board for CNN began before the lawsuit was filed, said one of the people familiar with the talks.
"We always remain open to internal improvements to journalistic integrity," the company said in a statement.
Concerns about the company's owner swaying news coverage have been brewing since Paramount agreed last year to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Trump over the editing of a "60 Minutes" interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris as its merger with David Ellison's Skydance Media awaited regulatory approval. Some CBS correspondents have alleged political interference since Ellison, now Paramount's CEO, named Free Press founder Bari Weiss as CBS News editor in chief last fall. CBS has said there isn't political interference at the network.
Ellison said in an opinion piece in the New York Times last week that he believes the lawsuit isn't really about antitrust issues, but rather is intended to prevent him from owning CNN. Ellison is the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, an ally of Trump.
CNN's reporting has been critical of Trump, and the president frequently complains about the network's coverage. "The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner's CNN," Ellison wrote in the op-ed.
In its statement Wednesday, Paramount said that "using state powers to try to control speech would threaten the protections guaranteed by the first amendment."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by Politico that CNN isn't part of the legal case against the deal. There are currently no settlement talks between Paramount and California.
Paramount says the Warner deal is pro-consumer and would help it compete with larger technology and media companies including Disney, Netflix and Amazon.com. The proposed transaction has been cleared by the U.S. Justice Department and regulators in the European Union, the U.K. and elsewhere.
The concept of creating an entity to oversee a news organization's integrity isn't new. When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones in 2007, the company agreed to establish a special committee to ensure the objectivity and independence of Dow Jones's publications.
Ariel Emanuel, the Hollywood power broker and TKO Group chief executive who is close with Ellison and supports the Paramount-Warner deal, suggested the idea of "an editorial board over the news organization" in a CNBC interview earlier this month "so that everybody's calm about news and possibly Larry Ellison controlling CNN and CBS."