On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House 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 a factor in why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to prefer that suitor 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, 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 secure position. That structure could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest corporate chess match.
