This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Issue and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.
“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, 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 build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the latest merger game.
