This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her statement resonated to many. It remains one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and largely trustworthy reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a Business Tug-of-War
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has become part of 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 roots in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like 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 conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Future of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. Such a move could 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 a future sale. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different 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? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the newest merger game.
