On Thursday evening, as rumors swirled about the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and directing people to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the organizations where you can find fact-based and generally trustworthy reporting – notably during fast-moving events like the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Precarious Situation During a High-Stakes Struggle
However CNN, now 45 years old, finds itself in a precarious position as two massive media conglomerates vie for ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the future of CNN has been drawn into a high-stakes game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of regulatory actions,” said Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a financial tale with influential figures as the central actors, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard added.
The Additional Factor: The Former President
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s views about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his administration's retaliatory withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in White House briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will protect him from negative coverage and examination. That is a factor in why he appears to favor Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
There is a basis to favor that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, owner of CBS News, also recently installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Instability
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. Such a move could be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That arrangement could set up CNN for another sale. The cycle continues.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently 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 Issue and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the bigger problem remains.
“The present media landscape is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard noted. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this hyper-commercialized monster, and new policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Overhaul is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, finance public media, and prevent the accumulation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are vital for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations including CNN shouldn’t be tools in the latest merger game.
