This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where one can locate fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a Corporate Tug-of-War
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new 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 highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the newest acquisition battle.
