Skip to text
The Independence Desk

Independent file on CNN and CBS News. Not an office of either network, Paramount, or Warner Bros. Discovery.

Edition 12 · filed (sprint close, filed early)

What the 180 days still have to produce

This sprint is done. The five chairs are not.

Twelve editions went up on one day because the terms were already public and the board was not. That is a file, not a substitute for names. The consent decree, as reported, gives Paramount 180 days after merger close to stand up the Editorial Independence Board for CNN and CBS News. David Zaslav told staff close could come by early October 2026. If that holds, the stand-up deadline is early April 2027. If close slips, the deadline slips. This page will not print a fake end date.

What the 180 days still have to produce, or the decree is adjectives:

  1. Five names that meet the ten-year test and the bars (no government, no company officers/directors/non-journalist staff, party cap of two).
  2. A written definition of “journalist,” “affiliated with the same political party,” and “good cause” for removal.
  3. Principles staff can file against — public, not a drawer in compliance.
  4. A filing path that does not run through the manager named in the complaint.
  5. A promise to publish results, including when management wins.
  6. A budget or an honest sentence that there is none.
  7. Clarity that the WGA layoff freeze is a different instrument.

What this desk already put on the table and will not repeat as news:

  • The owner’s board picks the five (03).
  • Older American watchdogs mostly died or went quiet (02, 08).
  • A White House ban is a different docket (05).
  • The deal is expensive; the watchdog looks cheap (06).
  • A model can draft; a human still has to sign (11).
  • The holes in the clause are large enough to drive a combination of the two newsrooms through (09).

What this sprint was not:

  • An application for a seat.
  • A scorecard of candidates.
  • A claim that the signed PDF has been read here.
  • A 27 December “day-90” audit. That date was the old weekly calendar. It is not this edition.

Corrections stay on the original URLs. If close is announced, if five names drop, if principles appear, those facts go on the same routes with a date. The file does not move to hide the first version.

Money: no one paid for these twelve editions. Reader support, if it comes, is on /tips. Email [email protected]. Bitcoin is a jar. Neither buys a brief.

The beat is unchanged. Who decides what CNN and CBS News may air, and what happens when staff say the owner or the state is in the cut. The five will either become part of that answer or they will become another quiet ombuds. Watch the list, not the adjectives.

Sources

  • Editions 01–11 and the trade record cited there.
  • Zaslav “early October” close: CNN Business, 21 September 2026.

Reader question

On the day the five are named, which of the seven deliverables above will still be missing?

Corrections

None on this URL. A correction will be dated in this section. The address of the page will not change to hide the first version.