This Power Struggle For CNN Shows The Extent to Which Dysfunctional American Media Truly Is.
On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists reality-based and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a Business Struggle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two giant media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to favor 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, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“Our current system is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the latest corporate chess match.