This past Thursday night, amid swirling speculation concerning the Brown University gunman, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and pointing viewers to her network’s 9pm newscast.
Even though CNN is certainly not a perfect news source, her words resonated to many. It is one of the broadcasters where there exists grounded and mostly reliable reporting – especially during breaking news situations such as the one taking place in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position During a Business Tug-of-War
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a precarious state as two massive media empires battle over ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Regardless of who wins, the destiny of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, not as a question of what serves the news-consuming public.
“Here is one more case of the deep structural problems with roots in decades of policy decisions,” noted Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a professor of media policy at the Pennsylvania University.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – overlooks a larger point.
“The narrative is crafted as a business story with powerful individuals as the protagonists, but there is very little discussion of the public interest,” Pickard said.
The Additional Element: The Former President
The CNN scenario is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his main “fake news” adversary.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary suspension 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 protect him from journalistic oversight. That is a factor in why he seems to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
Trump has reason to prefer that suitor more. For one thing, it is led 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 installed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, noted for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that venerable news network.
An Outcome of Continued Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s hardly a guarantee of stability. That structure could set up CNN for another sale. There is no finish line.
According to Timothy Wu, a lot of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that competition laws should prohibit both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be opposed by the government,” Wu recently wrote.
The Core Issue and a Way Ahead
Whatever happens in this situation, the underlying crisis remains.
“The present media landscape is a highly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard said. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to foster this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can tackle it.
Can reform occur in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is highly improbable now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Measures that support independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, fund public media, and prohibit the accumulation of media power in very few hands are achievable – they are vital for a robust democracy.
When it comes to media ownership, bigger isn’t better. And news organizations such as CNN must not be pawns in the newest merger game.
