This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and generally dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a Corporate Battle
But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says 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 support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Issue and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.
