This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where there exists grounded and largely dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a High-Stakes Battle
However CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Factor: Political Influence
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled 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, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix wins, 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 secure position. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.
“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the latest merger game.
