Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement resonated to many. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of 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 deep structural problems with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to favor 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 appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw 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, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pieces in the newest corporate chess match.
