Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and largely reliable reporting – especially during crises like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a Business Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to like that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Further Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal 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 harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the underlying crisis persists.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.
