This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a impeccable news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and generally dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State During a Business Struggle
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious state as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic 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 contested by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the latest merger game.
