Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her statement resonated for numerous observers. It is one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – notably during crises such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in 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 led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the newest corporate chess match.
