Late Thursday, while unconfirmed reports spread regarding the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Although it is by no means a perfect news source, her words seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the organizations where one can locate fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – particularly during fast-moving events like the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Position During a Business Tug-of-War
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two huge media empires vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what helps the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with roots in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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 financial tale with influential figures as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his chief “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims 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 come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to favor that suitor more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently placed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the editor-in-chief of that storied news network.
A Possibility of More Instability
Notably, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a separate entity. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That structure could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, much of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should block both deals.
“Either merger would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Bigger Challenge and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the larger issue endures.
“Our current system is a highly anti-democratic system, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Change is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and outlaw the concentration of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent merger game.
