This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her message rang true to many. It remains one of the organizations where there exists grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – especially during crises like the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State During a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: Donald Trump
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says 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 seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to prefer 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 conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Possibility of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
