On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation 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.
Although it is by no means a impeccable news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where there exists reality-based and largely dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain position as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of business acquisition, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: The Former President
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that company 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, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue endures.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.
