On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message resonated for numerous observers. It stands as one of the broadcasters where there exists fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – especially during fast-moving events such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a High-Stakes Battle
But the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable position as two massive media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor 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 is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
A Further Element: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
He has grounds to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that historic news network.
A Future of Further Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated 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 arrangement could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be challenged by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead
Regardless of the resolution regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that is not to say it will not happen in the future.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations like CNN shouldn’t be pawns in the latest acquisition battle.
