On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find reality-based and generally trustworthy reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable State Amid a High-Stakes Tug-of-War
Yet the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
This situation is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Recall the cries 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 claims that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for another sale. It never ends.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently 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 argued.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the bigger problem endures.
“What we have now is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
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 within reach – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the most recent acquisition battle.
