Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a flawless news source, her message resonated to many. It stands as one of the organizations where there exists grounded and largely reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a Corporate Battle
But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has turned into a high-stakes game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the fundamental flaws with origins in many years of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the Penn.
The conjecture about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – could it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
The Complicating Factor: Political Influence
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from journalistic oversight. That is one reason why he seems to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
Trump has reason to like that suitor more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of More Turmoil
It is important to note, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a separate entity. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a safe harbor. That arrangement could pave the way for CNN for yet another acquisition. It never ends.
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 disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Challenge and a Potential Solution
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the larger issue remains.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Regulatory choices – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.
Measures that strengthen independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the concentration of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN cannot be tools in the latest corporate chess match.
