On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a perfect news source, her statement resonated for numerous observers. It is one of the organizations where there exists fact-based and largely dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position Amid a Corporate Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Core Issue and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the newest acquisition battle.
