Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation concerning a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and mostly trustworthy reporting – particularly during crises such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position Amid a Corporate Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two giant media conglomerates compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a major game of corporate ownership, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“It gets presented as a business story with key players as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from journalistic oversight. That is part of why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason 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, parent 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 Continued Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome in this situation, the larger issue endures.
“The present media landscape is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Measures that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are vital for a healthy democracy.
Regarding media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations including CNN must not be pawns in the newest corporate chess match.
