Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message resonated to many. It is one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and largely dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
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 recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest merger game.
