This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation regarding a shooting at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a flawless news source, her words seemed accurate to many. It stands as one of the outlets where there exists fact-based and mostly dependable reporting – notably during crises such as the one developing near a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Situation Amid a Business Battle
But the news network, now middle-aged, finds itself in a precarious situation as two massive media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the fate of CNN has become part of a major game of corporate ownership, instead of as a question of what helps the news-consuming public.
“This is yet another example of the deep structural problems with origins in decades of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the Penn.
The conjecture about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a more important point.
“The narrative is crafted as a corporate drama with key players as the protagonists, but there is hardly any discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard said.
A Further Factor: The Former President
The CNN scenario is further muddied by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary withdrawal of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his sparring with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now says that the network requires new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is part of why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a unsolicited offer.
Trump has reason to like that bidder more. For one thing, it is run 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 right-leaning Bari Weiss, known for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the lead editor of that venerable news network.
A Possibility of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be carved out into a independent unit. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is a violation of antitrust statutes, anyway. The influential voice of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Either merger would be bad for the country, and both should be opposed by regulators,” Wu stated.
The Core Problem and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome with this particular battle, the bigger problem endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we must resist learned helplessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to create this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Is this likely in an era where the head of the FCC refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that doesn’t mean it will be impossible forever.
Initiatives that bolster independent news organizations, aid local journalism, subsidize public media, and outlaw the consolidation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are essential for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations including CNN cannot be tools in the most recent corporate chess match.
