On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about 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 perfect news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It is one of the broadcasters where there exists reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations like the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a Business Battle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two massive media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
A Further Factor: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to prefer 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.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of Continued Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prohibit the consolidation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
