On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It is one of the organizations where there exists grounded and largely reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Business Battle
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Factor: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, 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 not exactly a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur 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 should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
