On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled concerning the Brown University gunman, 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 impeccable news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – notably during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State During a Business Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two giant media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the larger issue remains.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
