This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations vie 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 helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the newest merger game.
