This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where there exists reality-based and generally dependable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, 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 professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
A Further Factor: Political Influence
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to favor 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 placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Policies that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation 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 like CNN cannot be tools in the newest merger game.
