Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where there exists grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a Corporate Tug-of-War
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the most recent merger game.
