This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a flawless news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a High-Stakes Struggle
But CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes 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 governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: 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.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is run 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted 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 standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest corporate chess match.
