Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It is one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a Corporate Struggle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to like that company 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, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur 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 never happen.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the latest merger game.