On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a flawless news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Battle
However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Element: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to prefer that suitor 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“What we have now is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the latest merger game.
