This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led 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 appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“Our current system is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are essential for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.
