Late Thursday, as rumors swirled concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a flawless news source, her message seemed accurate for a lot of people. It remains one of the broadcasters where one can locate grounded and generally reliable reporting – notably during crises like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a major game of business acquisition, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Additional Factor: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
There is a basis to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of More Instability
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That setup could position CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome in this situation, the underlying crisis endures.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, finance public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the newest merger game.
