This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true for a lot of people. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State During a Business Battle
Yet CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated 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 is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is run 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“Our current system is a very system hostile to democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN must not be pieces in the most recent corporate chess match.
