Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and generally reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State During a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension 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 journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
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 hardly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the most recent merger game.
