Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though it is by no means a perfect news source, her words resonated to many. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly dependable reporting – notably during crises like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a High-Stakes Battle
However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
A Further Factor: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is run 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the newest acquisition battle.
