On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and generally reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a Business Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate 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 central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: The Former President
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to favor 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of More Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
