Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true to many. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to favor that company 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.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
