On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a impeccable news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
But the news network, 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.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to like that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
