Late Thursday, as rumors swirled regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her message resonated for a lot of people. It is one of the outlets where you can find grounded and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during crises like the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Corporate Struggle
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain situation as two massive media empires compete for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-risk game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Additional Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to prefer that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that venerable news network.
A Future of Further Uncertainty
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a safe harbor. That structure could position CNN for a future sale. It never ends.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance recently argued that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Fundamental Challenge and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens with this particular battle, the underlying crisis remains.
“What we have now is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we ought not succumb to the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this profit-obsessed monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Policies that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are essential for a functioning democracy.
Regarding media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN must not be pieces in the most recent merger game.
