Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words rang true for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and generally dependable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a Corporate Tug-of-War
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two giant media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to prefer 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 installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a very system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN must not be pawns in the most recent merger game.
