This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her words resonated to many. It stands as one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly reliable reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Corporate Struggle
However CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media empires vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Factor: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
A Future of Continued Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could position CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Issue and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue endures.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the most recent merger game.
