This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Corporate Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned 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 policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger 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 added.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled 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 conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of Continued Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, 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 challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Issue and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the most recent acquisition battle.
