On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words rang true to many. It is one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation During a Business Struggle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, 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,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Element: The Former President
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.
“Our current system is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new 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? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
