On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and mostly dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a Corporate Struggle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Element: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to like that suitor 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
Significantly, 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 not exactly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
