This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement resonated for numerous observers. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Tug-of-War
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“Our current system is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the latest merger game.
