This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during crises like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Business Battle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Recall 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 the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Possibility of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“What we have now is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
