This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and largely dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Factor: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that bidder 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Core Problem and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent merger game.
