🔗 Share this article

Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.

Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.

An Uncertain State During a Corporate Tug-of-War

Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.

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

“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.

The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.

“It is often framed as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.

The Additional Factor: The Former President

The network's predicament is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.

Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.

Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.

Trump has reason to like 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.

Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.

A Future of Continued Instability

Notably, 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 structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.

If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.

“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.

The Core Issue and a Way Ahead

Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue persists.

“What we have now is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.

Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.

In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the most recent corporate chess match.