This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and generally reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State During a Corporate Struggle
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like 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.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, 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 hardly a safe harbor. That structure could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.
“Our current system is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and revised 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 very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the newest merger game.
