Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding an incident at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words rang true to many. It is one of the outlets where you can find grounded and generally reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be pieces in the newest acquisition battle.
