This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled about 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.
Even though it is by no means a flawless news source, her statement rang true for numerous observers. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find grounded and generally reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Further Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.
“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest merger game.
