Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words rang true for numerous observers. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and largely reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
A Further Factor: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Further Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That setup could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the latest corporate chess match.
