The Power Struggle For CNN Reveals The Extent to Which Broken American Journalism Has Become.
This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate grounded and largely reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Business Battle
However the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
A Further Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and new 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? Change is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN must not be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
