On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It stands as one of the broadcasters where you can find reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during fast-moving events like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Business Struggle
But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about which company will control 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 powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
This situation is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in White House briefings.
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 appears 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.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that historic news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pieces in the newest corporate chess match.
