Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for a lot of people. It is one of the organizations where there exists grounded and mostly trustworthy reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one taking place near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position Amid a High-Stakes Battle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has turned into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in many years of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with key players as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Complicating Element: Political Influence
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
There is a basis to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Future of Further Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a independent unit. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance recently argued that competition laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the underlying crisis persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard noted. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC will not confirm that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in a handful of hands are within reach – they are necessary for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the latest acquisition battle.
