This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding 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 statement resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where there exists reality-based and largely dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a Corporate Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
A Further Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Issue and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.
