This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Political Influence
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is led 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Continued Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Issue and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent acquisition battle.
