All The Media Companies I’ve Worked For Will Soon Be Owned By Phone Companies

When I grew up, AT&T was a giant phone company. It made telephones and was the network used to connect local and long distance phone calls. It grew so big, the government ordered it to be split up.

When I began my career in television as a journalist, I never imagined all the companies I worked for would become owned by AT&T and its offspring.

The distribution of media used to be separately owned from the creation of media. That seemed like a pretty good idea. No longer.

I’ve worked for three media companies that were fully independent when I joined. Now they are all owned or agreed to be acquired by telecomm companies AT&T and Verizon.

Verizon has a direct connection to AT&T. When the Justice Department broke up AT&T in 1984, it created Baby Bells including Bell Atlantic. Bell Atlantic acquired GTE in 2000, and changed its name to Verizon.

My first job after college was at CNN. At the time, it was owned by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and its founder Ted Turner. In 1996, TBS merged with Time Warner. (1)

This weekend, AT&T announced plans to acquire Time Warner, including CNN.

The next company I worked for was Internet pioneer Yahoo. Earlier this year, Verizon announced plans to acquire Yahoo.

I also worked at the tech blog Techcrunch. In 2010, TechCrunch was purchased by AOL. Last year, AOL was purchased by Verizon.

A key question is whether these media companies, like CNN, will be able to maintain their editorial independence. Tom Johnson, my former boss and President of CNN, wrote on Facebook:

In my opinion, the most important element involved in the proposed ATT/Time Warner combination will be the critical need for ATT to protect the news and editorial independence of CNN Worldwide and its news division. Journalists must know that their freedom to report honestly, accurately, and fairly will be supported by ATT as it has been under Time Warner and Turner ownership. Otherwise DOJ or FCC must not approve deal. If I were ATT CEO I would place one journalist on parent board as watchdog to protect journalism, as long ago Time Inc once did.(2)

As usual, Tom is right!

Update: AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson has promised to keep CNN’s editorial independent. According to an email obtained Sunday by The Washington Post, Stephenson wrote regarding CNN:

This is particularly important as it applies to an institution as culturally significant as CNN. My board and I are not confused. Ensuring the public that CNN remains independent from an editorial perspective is critical.

We will see whether that pledge is kept.

Whether or not the pledge about editorial independence is kept or not, whether the media companies and the public is best served when they are owned by telecomm giants is still a major concern.

Footnotes

(1) Part of Time Warner had already been acquired by another phone company, Verizon. In 2000, Time Warner merged with AOL. It was widely considered one of the worst mergers in corporate history. Then in 2009, Time Warner split off AOL to operate as a separate company. CNN remained under Time Warner. The once again independent AOL was purchased Verizon in 2015.

(2) Tom gave me permission to share his Facebook comments.