Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation During a Business Battle
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has turned into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of More Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst 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 opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“Our current system is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
