This past Thursday night, while unconfirmed reports spread concerning an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins posted on social media, noting the confusion and guiding the public to her channel's 9pm newscast.
While the network is hardly a perfect news source, her words resonated for numerous observers. It remains one of the outlets where there exists grounded and largely reliable reporting – particularly during breaking news situations like the one developing in the vicinity of a New Hampshire storage facility.
A Vulnerable Position Amid a Business Tug-of-War
However CNN, now four and a half decades old, finds itself in a vulnerable state as two huge media corporations vie for ownership of its corporate owner, Warner Bros Discovery.
Whatever the outcome, the fate of CNN has become part of a high-stakes game of mergers and acquisitions, instead of as a question of what benefits the news-consuming public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in decades of regulatory actions,” stated Victor Pickard, writer of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a academic specializing in media policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
The speculation about the future owner of Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – misses a larger point.
“It gets presented as a financial tale with influential figures as the main characters, but there is very little discussion of the societal benefit,” Pickard explained.
The Complicating Element: Donald Trump
The CNN scenario is made more complex by Donald Trump’s opinions about a network he has long portrayed as perhaps his primary “fake news” antagonist.
Remember the chants of “CNN sucks!” at Trump's rallies, his administration’s punitive suspension of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his clashes with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now asserts that the network requires new ownership. This can be interpreted as ownership that will insulate him from negative coverage and examination. That is one reason why he appears to come down on the side of Paramount Skydance, which has made a aggressive takeover attempt.
He has grounds to prefer that company more. For one thing, it is controlled by David Ellison, son of the ally of Trump Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, owner of CBS News, also recently appointed the right-leaning Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that storied news network.
A Future of More Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix is successful, CNN and other cable outlets would first be separated into a standalone company. This might be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a secure position. That arrangement could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
In the view of Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is against the law, anyway. The well-known analyst of big tech’s dominance wrote recently that anti-trust laws should block both deals.
“Both acquisition attempts would be bad for the country, and both should be contested by anti-trust authorities,” Wu argued.
The Bigger Problem and a Path Forward
No matter the outcome regarding CNN, the bigger problem endures.
“What we have now is a profoundly structure that undermines democracy, but we shouldn’t give in to a sense of powerlessness,” Pickard emphasized. Government actions – originating in the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this overly commercial monster, and different policy decisions can fix it.
Will that happen in an era where the Federal Communications Commission chair will not confirm that the agency is independent? Overhaul is very unlikely now, but that is not to say it will never happen.
Policies that strengthen independent news organizations, bolster local journalism, finance public media, and outlaw the accumulation of media power in too few hands are within reach – they are vital for a robust democracy.
Regarding media ownership, size does not equal quality. And news organizations like CNN cannot be pieces in the most recent acquisition battle.
