This Power Struggle For CNN Highlights The Extent to Which Flawed US Journalism Has Become.
Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about the Brown University gunman, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during crises like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to like that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of Continued Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, 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 far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Problem and a Way Ahead
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
