This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message resonated for numerous observers. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists grounded and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Business Tug-of-War
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Continued Instability
It is important to note, 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 not exactly a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.
“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
