Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a perfect news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where one can locate grounded and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is led 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
