This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and generally reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two giant media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to prefer that company 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, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much 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 detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.
