On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message resonated to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where there exists reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a Business Tug-of-War
However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to prefer 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, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
