This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where there exists grounded and generally dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Struggle
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Factor: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That setup could position CNN for another sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – 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.
