Late Thursday, as rumors swirled 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 CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words rang true for numerous observers. It remains one of the organizations where there exists grounded and generally reliable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation During a Corporate Struggle
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of 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,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Factor: The Former President
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Recall 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 White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off 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 pave the way for CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
