This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where there exists grounded and largely dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Business Struggle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive 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 insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis 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.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Problem and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the newest merger game.
