This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where there exists grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two huge media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims 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 come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
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, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Uncertainty
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 relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.
