On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a impeccable news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where one can locate grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of governmental choices,” stated 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 – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to like that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Core Issue and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest merger game.
