This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It stands as one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and generally reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Corporate Battle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Element: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
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 tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of More Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Issue and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the most recent merger game.
