This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where there exists reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a Business Struggle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating 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” adversary.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to favor 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, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
