On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a Business Struggle
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Political Influence
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump'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 CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Further Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the latest acquisition battle.
