This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and generally reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Element: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue remains.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
