Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where there exists grounded and largely reliable reporting – especially during crises like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Struggle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to favor 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.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix wins, 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 far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.
