Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and generally reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-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 editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent acquisition battle.
