Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find reality-based and generally reliable reporting – particularly during crises like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Continued Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a relief 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.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated 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 stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
