On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message resonated to many. It stands as one of the organizations where there exists grounded and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds 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 appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Future of More Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.
“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm 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, finance public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent acquisition battle.
