This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement resonated to many. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Struggle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Factor: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation 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 shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to prefer 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Issue and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
