Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says 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 hostile bid.
Trump has reason to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem endures.
“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.
