On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true to many. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during crises like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation During a Corporate Battle
However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to prefer that suitor 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, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the newest merger game.
