Late Thursday, as rumors swirled about a shooting at Brown University, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where you can find grounded and mostly reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Struggle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates vie 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, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” stated 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? – overlooks a larger point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is scant discussion of the public interest,” Pickard added.
A Further Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Recall the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's 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 the network requires new ownership. Many see this as a desire for ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to prefer 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.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. Such a move could be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Problem and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the latest merger game.
