Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
However the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. 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 prefer 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, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Continued 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 hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
