On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a flawless news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Business Struggle
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
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.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Continued Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off 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 structure could position CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu stated.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.
