This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Struggle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal 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. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that suitor 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 top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Core Problem and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
