On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to favor that bidder 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“What we have now is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to 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 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.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN must not be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.
