On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her statement resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where there exists grounded and largely dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Business Struggle
However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two huge media conglomerates compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of policy decisions,” 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 financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
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 part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to favor that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Further 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 hardly a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens in this situation, the larger issue endures.
“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN must not be pawns in the latest merger game.
