Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a flawless news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and generally dependable reporting – especially during crises such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position Amid a Business Tug-of-War
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is led 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the most recent merger game.
