Who puts the names on the five chairs

The 21 September 2026 consent decree does not hold a public contest for the Editorial Independence Board. It gives the appointment to the combined Paramount–WBD board. That is the politics. Everything else is commentary around that sentence.

Trade reporting is consistent on the mechanics. Five journalists, working or retired, ten years minimum. Three-year terms. No more than two affiliated with the same political party. No government officials. No officers, directors, or non-journalist employees of the combined company. The company has 180 days after merger close to stand the board up. Hollywood Reporter’s account added that members can be removed only for good cause, and that the board reports to the corporate board through a chief compliance officer.

Close is not the same day as the decree. Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav told staff the companies expected to close no later than early October 2026. Paramount had been racing a 1 October ticking fee reported at about $7 million a day. If close slips, the 180-day clock slips with it. This page will not invent an end date.

Who sits in the room that picks the five is not a mystery of process. David Ellison chairs the Paramount side that will run the combined board. Larry Ellison is the capital behind that control. RedBird Capital is the partner with a large voting stake. CJR reported the worry in plain language: the same board that owns the newsrooms approves the people who are supposed to hear disputes about those newsrooms. William Tong’s concern, as quoted there, was final approval. That is not a slur. It is the decree’s appointment clause restated as power.

“Independent,” in that room, cannot mean “unknown to the owner.” It can only mean “not a government official, not a company officer, not a third member of the same party.” Those are filters. They are not a nominating public. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the board would ensure independent, objective, fact-based reporting. FCC commissioner Anna Gomez said the protections were untested. Both statements can sit on the same page. One is the sales line of the settlement. The other is the skepticism that an owner-appointed panel will hold after the ink dries.

Gavin Newsom was reported as in constant contact with the talks the weekend the deal closed. That is appointment-adjacent politics, not a seat. The decree bars government members and government approval rights over who is named. A governor can hurry a settlement and still be locked out of the five chairs. The lock is on membership, not on who got the phone call that produced the clause.

Names already in circulation are not appointments. Hollywood Reporter floated in-house talent and RedBird-adjacent former journalists as the kind of people a board like this often reaches for. Until the combined company publishes five names, those are industry guesswork. This desk will not turn the ten-year rule into a scorecard. Day 1 said that. Day 3 keeps it.

What “affiliated with the same political party” means is still undefined in the coverage this desk has. Donor? Registration? Public endorsement? A former aide? If the company leaves that phrase soft, the cap is a talking point. If it writes a rule, the cap is a constraint. Watch the definition, not the bios.

The appointment politics, reduced:

• The owner’s board names the watchdog.
• The state helped write the box and is barred from sitting in it.
• The public does not vote.
• The first political act is not a ruling. It is a list of five.