On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where one can locate fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Struggle
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” 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? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal 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 shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to prefer that suitor 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, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Core Problem and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the latest corporate chess match.
