On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words resonated for a lot of people. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and largely trustworthy reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a High-Stakes Battle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious position as two huge media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Factor: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of More Uncertainty
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives 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.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest corporate chess match.
