On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate for numerous observers. It remains one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and generally dependable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Corporate Battle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to favor that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem remains.
“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be tools in the newest merger game.
