Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and largely dependable reporting – especially during crises like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Business Battle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two giant media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Factor: The Former President
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Issue and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“The present media landscape is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the most recent merger game.
