On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement resonated to many. It is one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and generally dependable reporting – notably during crises like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a High-Stakes Struggle
However CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy 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 influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that bidder 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, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied 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. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the larger issue persists.
“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.
