This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where one can locate grounded and largely dependable reporting – notably during crises like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a High-Stakes Struggle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not 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,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
A Further Element: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized 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? Reform is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN must not be pieces in the newest merger game.
