Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a Business Struggle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate 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.
He has grounds to prefer 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.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the latest acquisition battle.