This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her statement resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and generally reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Policies that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest merger game.
