This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where there exists reality-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a Corporate Struggle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
If you ask 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.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Issue and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent merger game.
