Friends don’t let friends watch cable news. So why is the fate of CNN vital to democracy?

Labor Day is behind us, summer is starting to wane and it’s time to start thinking about what media news will keep us up at night this fall. From the standpoint of my research interests and my personal passions, the ongoing crisis in local journalism looms as the most important storyline.

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In terms of immediate threats and what it means for our democracy, though, I would identify the possibility (if not the likelihood) that Paramount will absorb CNN into its empire as the story we need to keep the closest eye on.

I’m not going to regurgitate the whole backstory. The key facts are that Paramount, which now owns CBS, is run by Trump ally David Ellison, who in turn is backed financially by his father, Larry Ellison, another Trumper. CBS’s news division is sinking into pathetic irrelevance under the leadership of Bari Weiss, an anti-anti-Trump contrarian who has taken a wrecking ball to “60 Minutes” and is presiding over laughably low ratings for the evening newscast.

There’s a real danger that Weiss will be put in charge of CNN as well. Now, say what you want about CNN, but it employs some great journalists and has international reach. What its executives choose to put on the air during primetime can be frustrating, even maddening. But as long as it stays out of the Ellisons’ clutches, there’s a chance it can be redeemed. CEO Mark Thompson turned The New York Times into a business dynamo during his time there, and he’s a better bet to save CNN while doing actual journalism than any Ellison-backed successor would be.

At the moment, Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the media company whose holdings include CNN, has been stymied by a lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys general, including Andrea Campbell of Massachusetts. The hope is that an agreement can be worked out that will allow the acquisition to move ahead without CNN, which, in terms of what entertainment moguls think about, really isn’t all that important.

I like to joke that friends don’t let friends watch cable news, especially during prime time, when CNN, MS NOW and Fox News all feature talk shows aimed at keeping you angry, upset and watching. Yes, Fox News wallows in MAGA falsehoods, but all three follow the same business model.

But CNN, unlike its competitors, is also a great journalistic enterprise, able to bring live coverage to natural disasters, war and other big stories around the world. We can’t lose that. If anything, we need a reboot so that CNN leans into that kind of reporting. If it falls into the Ellisons’ clutches, though, there won’t be any chance of that happening.