Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words rang true to many. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find grounded and largely reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Factor: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to favor that company more. For one thing, it is run 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.
“The present media landscape is a highly 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 profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
