On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words resonated to many. It remains one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and mostly reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious State Amid a Business Tug-of-War
However the news network, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a uncertain position as two massive 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 high-risk game of business acquisition, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the fundamental flaws with roots in many years of governmental choices,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about which company will control Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the common good,” Pickard added.
The Additional Layer: The Former President
The network's predicament is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Think back to the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from criticism and scrutiny. That is a factor in why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to favor that company 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 appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of More Turmoil
Notably, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a secure position. That structure could position CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
In the view of Timothy Wu, much of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance stated that anti-trust laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Potential Solution
Regardless of the resolution with this particular battle, the bigger problem endures.
“What we have now is a very structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and different policy decisions can address it.
Is this likely in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm 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, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in a handful of hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be tools in the newest acquisition battle.
