🔗 Share this article

This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where there exists reality-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain Situation During a Corporate Struggle

But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.

“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.

The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.

“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.

The Additional Element: Political Influence

The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.

Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.

He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.

A Future of Further Instability

Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.

According to Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.

The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward

Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.

“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.

Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.

Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.

Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the latest corporate chess match.