Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to favor 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.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. 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 a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“The present media landscape is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the latest merger game.
