Commentary: Think an 'independent' editorial board will protect CNN from political meddling? Think again.

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Set us as preferred “They’re not worth the paper they’re printed on.”The speaker was media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who had accepted a sheaf of guarantees of editorial independence for the revered Times of London and the Sunday Times in order to secure government approval to take over the newspapers in 1981.Among Murdoch’s undertakings were that the newspapers’ editors would maintain control of their political policies and that the editors would have full independence from Murdoch’s orders about the mix of news and opinion in their pages.Additionally, four “national figures” would be placed on an oversight board to insulate the papers from his interference, and the independent board would have to approve the firing or hiring of the top editor.

This ‘independence board’ has no power, no authority and will likely do nothing to preserve the integrity of CNN or CBS.— William Grueskin, veteran of Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of the Wall Street JournalHarold Evans, who served as editor of the Times for a year before Murdoch fired him, reported in his memoirs that “Murdoch broke all those guarantees.” When a top British Cabinet member confronted him with these promises, Murdoch responded with the crisp assessment above.Those words should be kept in mind as we contemplate the “News Editorial Independence Board” that Paramount boss David Ellison pledged to install to protect CNN and CBS News from his editorial meddling after he takes over Warner Bros.Discovery in a $111-billion deal.

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