On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, highlighting the uncertainty and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While it is by no means a flawless news source, her statement resonated to many. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find reality-based and largely reliable reporting – notably during breaking news situations such as the one unfolding in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position Amid a Business Tug-of-War
But the news network, now 45 years old, finds itself in a uncertain state as two huge media empires battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a high-risk game of corporate ownership, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the fundamental flaws with origins in decades of governmental choices,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The debate about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a broader point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the common good,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has consistently labeled as perhaps his chief “fake news” adversary.
Recall the cries of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to like that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Possibility of Continued Instability
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That setup could pave the way for CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
If you ask 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.
“Either merger would be detrimental to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Problem and a Path Forward
Regardless of the resolution in this situation, the larger issue remains.
“What we have now is a very system hostile to democracy, but we ought not succumb to learned helplessness,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the head of the FCC won’t even affirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that strengthen independent news organizations, aid local journalism, fund public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in too few hands are achievable – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be pawns in the newest acquisition battle.
