On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true to many. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two giant media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the fate of CNN has become part of 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 fundamental flaws with origins in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of 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 lead editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.
