On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement resonated for numerous observers. It is one of the broadcasters where one can locate fact-based and generally dependable reporting – particularly during crises like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
A Further Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to favor that company 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 editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Issue and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the bigger problem remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
