Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though it is by no means a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a Business Battle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent merger game.
