This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and largely reliable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a Business Struggle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House 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 part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Possibility of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, 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 not exactly a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“Our current system is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized 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? Change is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
