Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message rang true for numerous observers. It is one of the broadcasters where you can find reality-based and generally reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a Business Struggle
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of policy decisions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems 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 Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the most recent acquisition battle.
