This past Thursday night, as rumors swirled concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the broadcasters where you can find reality-based and largely trustworthy reporting – especially during crises like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation Amid a Business Battle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a broader point.
“It is often framed as a business story with influential figures as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Layer: Donald Trump
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember 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 White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the newest acquisition battle.
