This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used 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 statement seemed accurate to many. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and largely trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Business Struggle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can tackle 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 should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the newest corporate chess match.
