Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State During a Business Battle
But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: The Former President
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Future of Further Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – from 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 head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
