On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her statement seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the outlets where one can locate fact-based and largely reliable reporting – especially during crises such as the one unfolding near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a Business Tug-of-War
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two giant media corporations battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This is yet another example of the profound systemic issues with origins in many years of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a broader point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Factor: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent 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 More Uncertainty
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, much of this is against the law, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, 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 build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pieces in the newest merger game.
