This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It is one of the broadcasters where one can locate fact-based and generally dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Business Battle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
