On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words resonated to many. It is one of the organizations where there exists grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a High-Stakes Struggle
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot 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 harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the latest merger game.
