This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her statement rang true to many. It remains one of the broadcasters where there exists grounded and mostly dependable reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The speculation about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with key players as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
A Further Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Remember the cries of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield 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 hostile bid.
There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could set up CNN for a future sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the most recent merger game.
