On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words rang true for numerous observers. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find grounded and generally dependable reporting – notably during crises like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That setup could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
