On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the organizations where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a High-Stakes Struggle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has turned into a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will shield him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Issue and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis remains.
“Our current system is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are not only possible – they are vital for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.
