On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her message seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and mostly reliable reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Situation During a High-Stakes Struggle
However CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. That would be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“Our current system is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN must not be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
