On Thursday evening, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her message rang true to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists reality-based and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Business Battle
But CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious situation as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The debate about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Layer: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension 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 insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to favor that company 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 lead editor of that historic news network.
A Future of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the bigger problem persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – dating back to 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 Federal Communications Commission chair won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Change is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Initiatives that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
