Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and generally reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a Corporate Struggle
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are essential for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the latest merger game.
