This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true 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 like the one developing close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position Amid a Business Struggle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two giant media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“It gets presented as a business story with powerful individuals as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes 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 criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is led 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 conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix wins, 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 far from a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for another sale. It never ends.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a highly system hostile to democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
