Late Thursday, amid swirling speculation about a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins used social media, pointing out the conflicting information and guiding the public to her network’s 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a impeccable news source, her words seemed accurate for numerous observers. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists grounded and largely reliable reporting – particularly during crises such as the one unfolding close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain Position During a Corporate Battle
However CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a uncertain state as two massive media corporations compete for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has been drawn into a major game of mergers and acquisitions, rather than as a question of what benefits the information-seeking public.
“Here is one more case of the profound systemic issues with origins in decades of policy decisions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – is it going to be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a business story with powerful individuals as the main characters, but there is hardly any discussion of the public interest,” Pickard explained.
A Further Layer: Donald Trump
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his primary “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at the president’s rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in official meetings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will insulate him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is led by David Ellison, son of the pro-Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
Paramount, parent of CBS News, also recently installed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that storied news network.
An Outcome of Further Instability
Notably, if Netflix wins, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. This might be a relief to many at the network, but it’s not exactly a guarantee of stability. That structure could pave the way for CNN for a future sale. The cycle continues.
According to Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should prohibit both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be challenged by anti-trust authorities,” Wu stated.
The Fundamental Issue and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the underlying crisis endures.
“What we have now is a very anti-democratic system, but we must resist the belief that change is impossible,” Pickard emphasized. Regulatory choices – from the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this hyper-commercialized monster, and revised policy decisions can fix it.
Can reform occur in an era where the top communications regulator will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that should not imply it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are necessary for a robust democracy.
In the world of media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations such as CNN shouldn’t be pieces in the newest merger game.
