Who the decree keeps out — and the holes it leaves

The 21 September text, as reported, names people who may not take a chair. It does not name everyone who can still own the room.

Barred, on the coverage this desk has:

• Government officials, including federal, state, and local.
• Anyone in government with approval rights over the appointees — also forbidden.
• Officers of the combined Paramount–WBD company.
• Directors of that company.
• Non-journalist employees of that company.
• A third member affiliated with the same political party as two already seated.

That list is real. It keeps a governor off the panel. It keeps David Ellison off the panel. It keeps a Paramount lawyer off the panel. It does not keep Ellison’s board from choosing the five. Day 3 is that file.

Holes, stated as holes, not as verdicts.

“Journalist.” Ten years of what — staff badge, freelance, documentary, corporate comms that once filed from a war? Undefined in the stories used here.

“Affiliated with the same political party.” Registration, donation, podcast, spouse, old campaign job? Undefined. A cap without a definition is a press line.

“Good cause” for removal. Hollywood Reporter said members can be removed only for good cause. If good cause is “lost the confidence of the combined board,” the bar on officers is theater. The owner still empties the chair.

Reporting line. A board that files through a chief compliance officer can be independent on the org chart and quiet in public. Day 2 and Day 8 are that risk.

Force majeure. Strikes and recessions, as Deadline described them, can pause obligations. A labor fight is both a reason to need the board and a reason the decree might let the company slow-walk it.

Scope. U.S.-intended news, in one account. CNN’s international operation may sit outside the box. A complaint about a London edit might be told it is not the five’s problem.

Colorado and Washington were reported as excluded from the editorial-board provision. A remedy that is not uniform among the states that sued is a remedy with a map.

Combining CNN and CBS News. The board does not, as reported, forbid that combination. Leadership of the rooms stays corporate. The five can be pristine and still watch one edit absorb the other.

Who must not sit is the easy list. Who must not hover is not in the clause. A person kept out of the chair can still call. Day 1 said that. Day 9 keeps it.

This edition does not propose five names. It proposes that every hole above get a written definition before the first case, or the first case will define them in the owner’s favor.