Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where you can find reality-based and largely dependable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Business Struggle
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two massive media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Factor: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled 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 placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
