This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to favor that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.
“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the newest corporate chess match.
