This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though it is by no means a impeccable news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
A Further Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of More Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.
“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the latest merger game.
