On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – notably during crises such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a Corporate Tug-of-War
However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is led 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the underlying crisis persists.
“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
