This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Battle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to favor that suitor 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, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent merger game.
