On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It is one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and generally reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation During a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a major game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Element: The Former President
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen 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, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the most recent merger game.
