GRAUNIAD MAD, OVERSIGHT BAD: Plan for editorial oversight board at CNN and CBS News draws skepticism: ‘Utter garbage.’
Critics of the mega-merger had expressed concerns about CNN being taken over by the Ellison family, which has well-documented connections to the Trump administration. David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, have reportedly spoken with the White House about potential changes they might make at CNN, which could ultimately generate more positive coverage of the Trump administration, a prospect that has worried journalists at the cable news network.
On Monday afternoon, there was already some skepticism within the media industry – including from current and former employees at the companies involved in the deal – about whether the editorial oversight board would actually protect CNN’s editorial integrity.
“There is no way that is going to work,” former CNN anchor Jim Acosta said. “They will start to fire anchors and certain folks to send a message, and the rest will either have to fall in line or leave. This was a colossal mistake.”
One concerned CBS News staffer said that it “sounds like utter garbage”.
“I’m happy to hear more about this, but how a board works day to day is tough to wrap my head around,” said a CNN producer who was not authorized to comment.
Jessica J González, the co-chief executive of the advocacy organization Free Press, expressed doubts about the effectiveness of an oversight board.
“As we learned from the failed and widely panned Facebook oversight board, a fake bipartisan oversight committee won’t save CNN,” she said in a statement on Monday. “We have all the evidence we need from the Ellisons’ destruction of CBS about what they do to warp journalism at Donald Trump’s request.”
Frank Sesno, a former CNN Washington bureau chief who now teaches journalism at George Washington University, said the effectiveness of the oversight board will depend entirely on how it works.
The best way to make it work is to say, “of course the oversight board will ensure CNN will remain a liberal TV network” — and then make sure the board is working off the traditional definition of the L-Word before it was stolen by 1920s-era “Progressives” attempting to distance themselves from the horrors of the Wilson administration.