Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where one can locate grounded and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a Corporate Battle
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: Political Influence
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to prefer 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the newest merger game.
