This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation Amid a Corporate Battle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Think back to 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 official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to favor that suitor 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of More Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the latest merger game.
