This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though it is by no means a flawless news source, her statement seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the broadcasters where one can locate reality-based and mostly dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a High-Stakes Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media conglomerates vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the shouts 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 claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears 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 Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Government actions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Policies that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are within reach – they are essential for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
