On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message rang true to many. It is one of the broadcasters where one can locate fact-based and generally dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer that company 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 placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the larger issue persists.
“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
