Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her statement resonated for numerous observers. It is one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during crises like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Corporate Struggle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy 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 is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in 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 head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest corporate chess match.
