This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, 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.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Factor: The Former President
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Further Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the larger issue persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN must not be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.
