On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a flawless news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where there exists reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a High-Stakes Battle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Notably, 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 safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem endures.
“The present media landscape is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
